ALBANY, N.Y. — The New York City schools chancellor is lobbying state lawmakers to give him authority to discipline teachers for inappropriate sexual conduct that isn’t serious enough to warrant criminal charges.
Chancellor Dennis Walcott says Tuesday the measure would affect a small group among the city’s 75,000 teachers who have made suggestive remarks or behaved inappropriately with students and he would no longer want them teaching children.
He says their due process rights would be protected.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s office cites the example of 16 teachers with confirmed offenses like inappropriate touching and requesting nude photos from underage teens who kept their jobs.
The United Federation of Teachers says the proposed bill would let the chancellor “unilaterally” find an employee guilty of sexual misconduct even though an independent hearing officer determined otherwise.
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