Lawyers spar at abuse hearing

Three months after the Long Beach School District launched a disciplinary hearing for former middle school special education teacher Lisa Weitzman that could lead to her dismissal, the proceeding continued at Lindell Elementary School last week, and new testimony from witnesses sparked a charged debate between two lawyers.

The district has lodged eight formal charges against Weitzman for her behavior between 2009 and 2014, including that she used a bathroom as a timeout room, threatened to restrain a student with zip ties and pushed a child into a wall, all of which Weitzman has denied. She was reassigned in November 2014 following the alleged bathroom incident, which spurred an investigation by the district, according to Schools Superintendent David Weiss.

The parents of five of Weitzman’s former students filed a petition to sue the school district for $25 million in Nassau County Supreme Court on April 1 for allegedly failing to act on abuse complaints by at least 11 teaching assistants. A judge has yet to decide whether the lawsuit can move forward. Meanwhile, the parents of another child have filed a federal lawsuit against the district, Weitzman and her two assistants.

The hearing — which began in March but adjourned in early May — continued on June 9 with the testimony of two witnesses brought in by Weitzman’s attorney, Debra Wabnik. Mary Elizabeth Thurston, a middle school nurse, was questioned about another of the charges, that Weitzman duct-taped gloves onto the hands of a child in her class.

According to Thurston, the boy’s hands smelled of feces, and she described the odor as “overwhelming.” In October 2013, Thurston said, she and the child’s mother tried a variety of cleansers to rid his hands of the smell, but nothing worked. Thurston said that the student came into her office one day wearing gloves, and she assumed they had been taped on by Weitzman and her teaching assistants, because otherwise the child would have ripped them off.

Thurston said that she had exchanged emails about the matter with Vincent Russo, the middle school’s special education coordinator, and Sabrina Cantore, the district’s executive director of pupil personnel services. Then, Thurston added, after calling the boy’s pediatrician, which did not lead to a solution they had not already tried, she recommended that the gloves be kept on in school to prevent the possible spread of bacteria to staff and other students.

“The hearing will bear out that the gloves were used on only one occasion, and for a short period of time, when the special soap and nail brush used for the student each day had to be replaced,” Wabnik told the Herald afterward in an email.

Wabnik also asked Thurston about another incident involving the boy, who was identified as “Student B,” last June, when, the nurse testified, the child scratched an art teacher, who subsequently developed a staph infection. Thurston said that the infection may have been caused by fecal matter on the boy’s hands.

Christopher Powers, the lawyer representing the school district, objected to the relevance of Thurston’s testimony, saying that the scratching incident occurred after Weitzman was reassigned. He also objected when Wabnik asked Thurston about her general impression of Weitzman, saying that such an opinion did not matter. But the hearing officer allowed Thurston to answer, and she said she never saw any behavior that concerned her during her few interactions with the class each year.

When Wabnik brought in her next witness — the mother of a child who often ate lunch in Weitzman’s class, but was under the charge of another teacher — Powers again grew agitated and questioned the witness’s relevance.

Wabnik responded angrily to his objection. The hearing officer stopped Wabnik abruptly, and called her and Powers into an adjacent room to speak to them privately, essentially ending the day’s session.

Wabnik told the Herald after the hearing that the parent was going to testify that a behavioral strategy known as timeout by reinforcement had been used successfully with her son, with the approval of the school psychologist. Wabnik said that the technique — which involves placing a child in a non-rewarding situation or setting when he or she behaves inappropriately — has been used for more than nine years in the district, with the approval of not only the school psychologist but also the administration. She added that Weitzman, too, had used the technique, “but nonetheless, they used it as an excuse to bring her up on charges.”

At the hearing, Wabnik said, “All of a sudden it’s an issue because they want her out of the district,” at which point the hearing officer stopped her from saying anything further. Powers did not respond to the Herald’s requests for comment.