LBMS teacher fired for abuse files appeal

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A special-education teacher who was fired earlier this month for allegedly abusing her severely disabled students has filed an appeal seeking to return to her position in the district with back pay, according to court documents.

Lisa Weitzman was terminated from her position at Long Beach Middle School at a special meeting on April 2 in the district’s administration building following a lengthy public disciplinary hearing that began in 2016. An independent arbitrator who investigated the case recommended that she be fired, saying she was a danger to students.

The Long Beach Board of Education voted 4-0 to fire her five years after faculty members and school staff alleged that she abused five of her students, including using a bathroom as a “time-out room,” cursing at them, threatening to use a zip tie to restrain them, digging a high heel into a student’s foot, pushing one of them against a wall and binding another’s hands with painter’s tape.

Weitzman filed papers April 10 in state Supreme Court in Nassau County asking for an order to reverse and overturn the opinion given by the arbitrator because “the opinion is completely contrary to the evidence adduced at the hearing, improperly assumes facts not in evidence, and reeks of bias against [Weitzman],” and imposes “too harsh a penalty.”

The teacher, who was hired by the district in 2007, was suspended in 2014 after facing eight allegations of abusing five of her students between 2009 and 2014. Weitzman strongly denied the allegations and requested that the hearing be open to the public. She filed her own lawsuit against the district in 2016, claiming that she was the subject of a malicious investigation and that administrators retaliated against her after she pushed for more classroom resources.

The State Education Department arbitrator, Hearing Officer Robert Grey, reviewed 29 days of testimony given by Weitzman, teaching assistants and other staff members over 14 months and found that she was guilty of three of the eight charges, including using the classroom as an unauthorized “time-out” room, grabbing a student and pushing him against a wall to restrain him, and dispensing Motrin to a student.

Weitzman and her attorney said in court documents that the decision should be overturned because of errors, including that it ignores large portions of the record, is internally inconsistent, “lacks a sound basis in fact,” is based on the bias and the whim of the hearing officer, and ignores Weitzman’s “unblemished” teaching record.

Weitzman is a certified teacher of special education who is a National Board Certified behavior analyst with six additional New York State Board of Education teacher certifications and a master’s degree in special education, with a concentration in autism, according to the documents. She is licensed to teach children with disabilities from birth to ninth grade, and the district hired her to be the lead teacher in the autism spectrum disorder class. She was the only one in the district to be ABA-certified, according to the appeal.

“Based on the hearing officer’s bias, insertion of facts into the record, lack of understanding of ABA, and a host of other legal errors, the opinion should be overturned and vacated,” the appeal states.

“Ms. Weitzman’s appeal is very strong,” Weitzman’s attorney, Debra Wabnik, told the Herald. “In sustaining three of the eight charges, the hearing officer disregarded the plain evidence, the law and Ms. Weitzman’s due process rights. We are very disappointed to have to appeal, but we are confident that the court will see that Ms. Weitzman put the needs and the rights of her students above all else.”

Board of Education Trustees declined to comment.