Original Blog Entry: Educators busted for ethnic jokes in the classroom

truesee — Sat, 28 May 2011 13:27:48 GMT

No one's laughin' at these teachers: Educators busted for ethnic jokes in the classroom

Clare Trapasso and Rachel Monahan

DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Saturday, May 28th 2011, 4:00 AM

Department of Education investigative reports have documented the educators' comments.

These jokes landed with a thud - and a slap on the wrist for the school staffers who told them.

One assistant principal told yo mama jokes, a teacher called rowdy students the Taliban and another educator tried to pass a racial slur off as humor, Department of Education investigative reports show.

Queens Junior High School 8 teacher David Butler admitted to investigators he tried to shush a class by saying Be quiet, you Taliban and Stop talking, you border jumpers, the report shows.

He meant it playfully, he told investigators, and didn't direct it at anyone in particular group because the class included students of various nationalities, the report said.

Butler, who couldn't be reached for comment, had a letter put in his official file.

Nearly a dozen 2009 investigative reports from the city Department of Education Office of Equal Opportunity were released yesterday in response to media requests.

The reports chronicled bias and sexual remarks made by teachers and staff to students, parents and other staffers.

Assistant Principal Lyle Walford of Brooklyn's High School for Public Service got in hot water for telling yo mama jokes in a black literature class.

I said at one time that it was a significant part of black culture, he said, noting the course also covered weightier subjects like the civil rights movement.

He even gave a reporter an example of a joke yesterday, saying, Your mother's so dumb she tried to alphabetize M M's.

Walford said a disgruntled teacher turned him in, but he understood that his comments had caused offense.

I can't debate someone's perception. I have no defense for her perception, he said, noting he'd agreed to sensitivity training to settle charges.

Substitute teacher Zsuzsanna Csecke at Newtown High School in Queens called a student the n-word, investigators said.

She denies ever using the offensive term, except to direct students not to say it. Yesterday, she called the incident a misunderstanding since she was not born in the U.S.

[The students] knew that I was a foreigner. They were trying to get me to say it, she said. I'm not a racist. I have many black students who like me. This word doesn't mean the same to me as to Americans.

Agency officials put a letter in her file and sent her for training.

Armando Cataldi, who formerly taught at Brooklyn Tech, was fined $10,000 for proposing group sex to fellow teachers as well as regaling them with tales of his own sexual exploits. He works at Life Academy High School for Film and Music in Brooklyn.

Cataldi did not return a call seeking comment.

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