Supreme Court denied a teacher's [Plaintiff] petition seeking to vacate an arbitration award suspending him for 15 days without pay. The Appellate Division unanimously affirmed the Supreme Court's ruling.
Citing Lackow v Department of Educ. [or "Board"] of City of N.Y., 51 AD3d 563, the Appellate Division held that the arbitrator's decision has a rational basis and was supported by the evidence.
The record, said the court, shows that the arbitrator reasonably determined that the Petitioner was guilty of misconduct when he locked a 10-year old student out of the classroom and left him unsupervised in the hallway.
Even if Petitioner was justified in removing the student from the classroom, said the Appellate Division, his actions in locking the boy out of the room, in a state of distress and leaving him in the hallway without adequate supervision, violated school policy.
The Appellate Division said that imposing a penalty of a 15-day suspension without pay from employment "does not shock our sense of fairness."
The decision is posted on the Internet at: