Rubber Rooms: Paradise for Union Teachers

What are Rubber Rooms?
"The Rubber Room" is a room where hundreds and hundreds of New York City schoolteachers presently sit, being paid full salaries for the remainder of their contract.

How do you get to check into "The Rubber Room"?
A teacher or guidance counselor can end at one of these rooms by:
- Excessive Lateness, Excessive Absences, Sexual misconduct with a student, Overly forceful discipline of a student, Perceived incompetence as a teacher, Unrelated criminal conviction, Illicit drug use. (www.rubberroommovie.com)

Who pays for the salaries?
Well, that would be YOU the taxpayer. Mainly if you reside in the New York Metropolitan area, you are on the hook for their salary. Last year NYC dished out $41 million dollars in salary to the highly distinguished guests of the "The Rubber Room".


Some of the Distinguished Guest List of "The Rubber Rooms"

In detention The following educators were legally cleared to return to the classroom after facing accusations of wrongdoing but remain idle in “rubber rooms” at the chancellor’s discretion, at a cost to taxpayers of millions.

ALAN ROSENFELD Typing, IS 347, Queens Got a wrist slap for making lewd comments. Since 2001, he has been overseeing a $7.8 million real-estate portfolio and his law practice in the rubber room.
Salary: $100,049

RADHARAMAN UPADHYAYA Guidance counselor, Long Island City HS, Queens Served a three-day suspension after he was accused of fondling a learning-disabled student at his home. A witness was found not credible. In a rubber room since 2003.
Salary: $102,852

ARYEH ELLER Music, Hillcrest HS, Queens, Admitted making lewd comments, but an arbitrator said he was not informed of his rights. In a rubber room since 2003.
Salary: $85,426

WAYNE MILLER Biology, Jamaica HS, Queens, In a rubber room since 2002, he was accused of sexually assaulting a child, but the alleged victim recanted the allegation, sources said.
Salary: $78,039

FRANCISCO OLIVARES Math, IS 61, Queens, Allegedly impregnated and married a 16-year-old student. He allegedly sexually molested two 12-year-old pupils a decade later. In a rubber room since 2003.
Salary: $94,145

$LEAZY 6 of "The Rubber Rooms"

Taxpayers are on the hook for more than $540,000 a year in salaries for six rubber-room teachers who have been legally cleared to return to class -- but will never go back because the schools chancellor believes they're too dangerous. All six public-school teachers have been benched for years over alleged sexual misconduct.

- Source: NY Post Article By SUSAN EDELMAN and CYNTHIA R. FAGEN

Anyone else ticked off by this? These UNIONS are walking all over our rights to fire these bad apples because of the contracts our elected officials have with them. These individuals need to be given a trial and if found guilty they need to be gotten rid off, instead letting it be a haven as it is now. This is a very huge problem, our education system and values are being corroded by these types of individuals. Is appropriate to allow for these types of practices to continue?

This practice has been going on for a while and now they have 6-8 such facilities.

Thats absolute disgrace, its like this in all countries, where people can just make up anything they want to destroy people.

Then people say that america is a free country, the people behind these things should be in prison.

.... since when do teachers make 6 figures? Or even approaching 6 figures?

Isn't this the same thing the auto unions did before the bailout? Pay people to sit on their ass?

Forgive me if I am not sympathetic to the unions these days...

reply to post by prionace glauca


So how many cops are suspended with pay for tasing, shooting, beating, or otherwise harming citizens on any given day, and how much does that cost the taxpayers?

If you think UNIONS are so bad, why don't you attack the police unions rather than just the teacher unions? Police unions cost far more to the public purse and protect far more violent criminals from justice than teachers' unions do.

Most of these teachers need to return to work, some of them might be bad apples but in a country where it's easyier enough for innocent people to be convicted, you should be innocent until proven guilty.

Regarding Unions...
Ban strikes: Strike means "economic sabortage" they are usually a last restort measure to bully companies into paying wages that harm productivity, or preventing technological change that makes the buisness compeditive.
Allow unions: There are plenty of Unions that do not strike e.g. Usdaw, yet they provide a good source of employee feedback i.e. offering ways to identify buisness problems, improve staff moral ect....

Time to start cleaning up the mess, one UNION at a time. Not all teachers in UNIONS are bad apples, but the system needs to be changed. And pointing fingers at other UNIONS doesn't get rid off the problem that already exists. It just means there is a lot of work that needs to be done and a lot more of the public that needs to become aware of these practices.