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He just won’t leave.
At age 75, Roland Pierre is the granddaddy of the rubber room — 13 years in the purgatory of teachers yanked from the classroom for alleged wrongdoing.
But the Department of Education can’t fire Pierre, and he’s stuck around long past the minimum retirement age.
Pierre was permanently removed from the classroom in 1997 after he was accused of sexually molesting a sixth-grade girl at PS 138 in Brooklyn.
But since then, Pierre has continued to receive full pay and fringe benefits, including health, pension and vacation, officials said. He pulls down $97,101 a year.
He’s one of six tenured teachers that Chancellor Joel Klein has refused to return to the classroom, even though any criminal charges were dropped and DOE hearing officers let them off the hook.
Pierre has been “permanently reassigned” the longest of all.
On June 26, 1997, Pierre, then 62, was arrested on felony sex-abuse charges after he allegedly called one of his students into an empty classroom where he taught English as a second language, closed the door and molested her.
First he wrapped the girl in a “bear hug,” according to a statement by then-schools investigator Ed Stancik. “He then kissed her on the mouth, inserted his tongue in her mouth, fondled her chest and reached under her skirt.”
The girl left and went to the administrative office, where she “burst into tears” and reported the incident, Stancik said in a March 6, 1998, report on the investigation, released to The Post last week.
The report says Pierre refused to speak to investigators, but gave a two-page typed statement acknowledging that he had met the girl behind closed doors.
According to Pierre, the report says, the girl talked about a class program and summer vacation. She “did not want to go to class, and he had to insist that she leave,” the report said.
Pierre wrote he then left his seat and “we hugged each other and I gave her three kisses.”
Pierre “denied arousal on his part,” and insisted the girl did not “protest.” He claimed she even invited him to a party planned for teachers that week.
Stancik recommended Pierre’s termination.
Officials would not explain what happened since, but sources said the criminal charges were apparently dismissed, and a DOE disciplinary case was “dropped on a technicality.”
Even if dropped, the arrest and disciplinary case would almost certainly prevent Pierre from ever getting another teaching job, said lawyer Joy Hochstadt, who has represented other teachers.
“Every application asks, ‘Have you ever been brought up on charges?’ ” she said.
The DOE has no required retirement age. Hired in 1986, Pierre could have retired at age 62. At his age, he can collect Social Security as well as his full salary, so his income may be close to $125,000 a year, sources said.
Pierre, reached yesterday at his Wyandanch, LI, home, refused to identify himself or comment.
Additional reporting by Candace Amos