Reinstate lesbian teachers caught having sex in classroom, court orders school
NEW YORK CITY, March 21, 2014 – A five-panel appellate court has ruled that having sex in a public school classroom is no reason to lose your job.
Justices with the Manhattan Appellate Division have ordered James Madison High School to reinstate two lesbian teachers whom they fired after a janitor found them having sex inside a classroom during a school event.
French teacher Cindy Mauro, 38, and Spanish teacher Alini Brito, 34, went to a bar after school, then returned to attend a school singing competition in January 2011.
They left the event and went into Room 337, when the custodian found the pair engaged in sexual activity. Both were naked from the waist up.
The school fired the pair, both of whom had tenure.
The teachers denied any wrongdoing, saying that Brito needed to get something to eat to stabilize her blood sugar, and filed a lawsuit.
On Thursday, the panel ruled, “The penalty of termination of unemployment is shockingly disproportionate to [their] misconduct.”
They added that the teachers had gone beyond the call of duty by attending the school event, as they "were not required to do so."
“They were both good at what they did,” their lawyer, Michael Valentine, said.
The opinion was signed by justices Richard Andrias, Leland DeGrasse, Helen Freedman, Judith Gische, and Angela Mazzarelli.
Bill Donohue of the Catholic League said the lack of media coverage that the three-year-old story received displayed a blatant double-standard.
“If two priests were caught having sex in a classroom and were given the green light by church authorities, it would be the lead story on the national evening news,” he said.
“This is nothing more than a passing local story,” because the women were lesbians, public school teachers, and had obtained tenure, conditions he said represent a “trifecta.”
