Teacher Fired for Touching Student, Then DCF Drops Bombshell Video
The dawn of the cell phone camera has led to several interesting repercussions. Examples of wrongdoing can be caught with increasing frequency, while video evidence can vindicate those accused of crimes.
Sometimes however, videos showing someone’s innocence are not always enough to clear that person’s name. The Press of Atlantic City reported that a teacher was fired after breaking up an October 2015 fight between students, despite a video showing that he did the right thing.
Phillip Eisenstein, a physical education teacher, was trying to break up a fight between students in his class, and was accused of using excessive force to do so.
“I’d already broken them up two or three times and had them sitting on the bleachers,” he told the newspaper. “But when they were lining up to leave, the bigger student went after the other one again and had him cornered. I did what I had to do to protect the other student.”
The school board didn’t see the situation that way, and in March of 2016 voted to fire the teacher for his actions, despite the fact that the state Department of Children and Families Institutional Investigations Unit conducted an extensive investigation, including reviewing video of the incident, and concluded that no wrongdoing had been done.
School safety experts called the case an example of the fine line teachers have to walk.
School safety consulted Ken Trump told the Press of Atlantic City that for teachers to use force under any circumstances is almost always a problems.
“Overall, however, parents do expect that while students are in the custody and care of school officials, someone will take reasonable steps to stop fights and other violent, aggressive behavior that could result in harm to a student in their care,” he said.
Many were sympathetic to the teacher’s cause.
Atlantic City teacher Phil Eisenstein was fired for breaking up a fight -- here's what WPG's Harry Hurley has to... fb.me/4wL5EOr4W
This social media user was a little less poetic.
B.S. me thinks. Ocean City Patch: New Jersey Teacher Fired After Breaking Up Fight patch.com/new-jersey/oce…
After the hue and cry on social media, however, Eisenstein got some good news: the Atlantic City school board rescinded his termination just one month after it was issued, the Press of Atlantic City reported.
“Phil was there that day in October to protect another kid,” retired teacher Bernard Reynolds told the school board. “You should commend this man. Parents want teachers like Phil. Don’t tarnish this man’s career. Give him his job back.”
And thus they did. Justice was eventually done, and thank God. However, the fact that this teacher had to go through this for standing up to a bully is a horrible thing.
H/T WND
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