Principal's out to get me, charges teacher in 'Rubber Room' suit

BY RACHEL MONAHAN
DAILY NEWS WRITER

Monday July 14th 2008, 7:36 PM

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2008/07/14/2008-07-14_principals_out_to_get_me_charges_teacher.html

A Brooklyn teacher claims he was banished to a "Rubber Room" after blowing the whistle on his principal for preventing special education students from getting services, the teachers union charges.

Kimani Brown, a teacher at Frederick Douglass Academy IV for three years, is suing Principal Marian Bowden for punishing him in retaliation.

"I'm a special education teacher. I'm supposed to make sure my students are getting their services provided," Brown said. "So I spoke up."

Brown charged Bowden hadn't hired a resource room teacher until months into the 2007-08 school year and that special education students were denied counseling and weren't given mandated extra time on tests.

The allegations mark another controversy swirling about the school, which reported a mom to child welfare services over her daughter's supposed absences, even though she wasn't enrolled, the Daily News reported last month. Brown has been idling at full pay in a detention room since May 21, a lawsuit the union filed July 3 in Manhattan Supreme Court charges.

The suit refers to a letter of commendation Bowden wrote in 2006, praising Brown for his "commitment" to "the special needs population."

After Brown's complaint last fall, the suit charges, city and state education officials visited and gave the school until yesterday to file a plan to correct problems, including the lack of individualized education plans for some students.

The officials said they are reviewing the document and will monitor the academy to ensure compliance.

Education Department spokeswoman Margie Feinberg declined to comment.