Teacher Loses Job, Heads to Prison for DWI Crash

Teacher Loses Job, Heads to Prison for DWI Crash Most often, when a teacher is charged with a criminal offense, their job is in jeopardy. A tenured teacher facing disciplinary and possible dismissal from employment must endure a 3020a hearing. Robert J.

 Thompson, 38, a Schuylerville school teacher resigned from his job and will serve a prison sentence of 1 to 3 years after pleading guilty to vehicular assault and driving while intoxicated. Thompson had a blood alcohol content of .18 percent. Thompson crossed the middle line of Route 29 in Saratoga Springs and struck a vehicle operated by 19-year-old Clinton English. English, of Greenwich, was ejected from his vehicle and broke his back and left ankle. He wore a back brace for three months and cannot work.

 Thompson was not hurt in the crash. The Gansevoort man pleaded guilty to first-degree vehicular assault. Full article. A 3020a hearing is an evaluation of a tenured teacher to determine whether a school district has grounds to dismiss them from employment. These hearings are before an administrative officer and can take years to be heard. During the period between when the accusations are initially made and the hearing, a teacher may find themselves confined to one of a district’s “rubber rooms.” 

These rooms are a purgatory where the teacher must report to while school is in session. While in the rubber room, the teacher is paid their full salary, however, they are not allowed to teach and must sit all day with no meaningful work to do.ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Lenny Leeds represent students, teachers, professors, adjunct faculty, administrators, board members and others who work in the primary or secondary levels of education.The attorneys at Leeds, Morelli & Brown, P.C., represent students, teachers, professors, adjunct faculty, administrators, board members and others who work in the primary or secondary levels of education, and who have been mistreated in some way by their employers.