LBMS abuse hearings continue

Ms. Weitzman expects to be fully vindicated, as she devoted herself to protecting her students.”

Debra Wabnik, Weitzman's attorney

She became very physical, to the point where we had to restrain her. The student was overpowering.”

Lauren Schneider, Weitzman's former teaching assistant

Hearings continued last week in the case of Long Beach Middle School teacher Lisa Weitzman, who is accused of verbally and physically abusing five of her special education students between 2009 and 2014.

The Long Beach School District launched a disciplinary hearing last year against Weitzman that could lead to her dismissal.

The parents of five of her students filed a $25 million lawsuit against the district in Nassau County Supreme Court last year for failing to act on abuse complaints filed by 11 teaching assistants. Additionally, parents of one of the students filed a federal lawsuit in April against the district, Weitzman and her two teaching assistants, Lauren Schneider and Jean-Marie Lilley.

The district lodged eight formal charges against Weitzman, alleging that she abused students for a period of six years. Weitzman — who has denied the allegations — is accused of using a bathroom as a timeout room, pushing a child up against a wall, threatening to restrain a child with zip ties and digging her high heel into a child’s foot. She allegedly taped latex gloves to a student’s hands, told a child he smelled bad and was “disgusting,” and stepped on a student’s feet and said, “You’re going to stop making those noises, you [expletive].”

She was suspended in November 2014 when the school district began an investigation. Because she is tenured, she continues to collect her $96,000 salary while on administrative leave.

The public disciplinary hearing began last March, and included testimony from former Long Beach Middle School Principal Michele Natali; Mary Elizabeth Thurston, a middle school nurse; and Vincent Russo, a special education coordinator at the middle school and Weitzman’s supervisor. At the latest hearing, held on Jan. 20 at the district’s administrative building, Schneider said she recalled taping latex gloves on one student’s hands because they were covered in feces and she considered it a health issue. That student’s parents filed the federal lawsuit. Schneider added that Weitzman had left the school for 20 minutes to buy soap because they had run out. The student “seemed entertained” by the gloves, Schneider said.

She also testified that when a student would enter the bathroom, the door was always open and the student was never alone.

Schneider never received a refresher course in her training, she said, despite Weitzman’s having asked the district for one for the teaching assistants. There was limited help in the classroom, and they were understaffed, Schneider said.

She testified that another student exhibited “very, very aggressive behavior” — scratching, hitting, kicking, pulling hair and choking other students and throwing objects like an apple. “I don’t remember a day going by without this happening,” Schneider said. “She became very physical, to the point where we had to restrain her. The student was overpowering.”

At one point during the hearing, members of the public were asked to leave the room while a video was shown to the hearing officer and attorneys.

After the hearing, Weitzman’s attorney, Debra Wabnik, told the Herald that another teaching assistant, Ariel Seligman, testified at a hearing on Jan. 18 that Weitzman was trying to protect one student in the bathroom from another student who had bitten, scratched, kicked and punched other staff members and students in the past.

According to Wabnik, Seligman described the bathroom as a “safe place” for the student, and said that the day after Weitzman was removed, he was bitten by the aggressive student.

Weitzman filed her own lawsuit against the district in June, claiming she was the subject of a malicious investigation although she had acted only as an advocate for her students.

Wabnik has said that the disciplinary charges were brought against her client in retaliation “for her advocating for the rights of the children entrusted to her.”

“Ms. Weitzman expects to be fully vindicated, as she devoted herself to protecting her students and would never do anything to harm any student in her care,” Wabnik said. “She … always went over and above to help her students and their families any way she could, and did everything in her power to get these severely disabled children the services they deserved, the same opportunities that the general education students had and to give them the safe and healthy educational environment, free from discrimination, that the district did not.”

Some witnesses, however, have described Weitzman’s classroom as “the torture room," according to a federal complaint filed by attorneys for the parents.

Christopher Powers, the attorney for the school district, did not respond to the Herald’s requests for comment. According to Newsday, Powers said there were five full-time staffers in the classroom for six children one year, as well as several therapists and other educators who worked with the students in and out of the classroom. Staffing was similar in other years, he said.

The final hearing is scheduled for Feb. 16.