The past week will go down as a depraved chapter in public-school history. It’s the week of Teachers Gone Wild — and cruel.
In twisted cases that shame the city, two lonely female teachers were caught bypassing bars and Internet dating sites to get down and dirty with their adoring male charges.
But topping the list of deviant educators is one Thomas Gibbons, a violent pedophile I’ve written about for more than a decade.
On Friday, Gibbons, 59, was arrested for allegedly having sexual contact with a 9-year-old New Jersey relative while visiting the child’s family between January 2010 and 2011.
Would it surprise you to learn that Gibbons — a tenured New York City special-ed teacher — was once arrested for allegedly grabbing a student by the hair inside William H. Taft HS in The Bronx, slamming her against a wall and holding a gun to her chest?
He was mad that the child tried to break off a sexual relationship that began when she was 15. Guess what. He’s still teaching!
Gibbons is today a member in good standing of the faculty at The Bronx’s John F. Kennedy HS. Despite the brutal attack on his teen love interest, said cops, and at least one other report from a girl who said Gibbons touched her sexually, the complaints went nowhere.
How could this happen? Simple. The school system, and its warped, union-backed system for ridding itself of rotten teachers, has been completely impotent in solving the pedophilia crisis. So why shouldn’t freaks take liberties with youngsters if they can get away with it so easily?
Teachers are not swiftly fired when they’re caught with their pants down. Instead, the United Federation of Teachers backs an arbitration system, run by ninnies, that does back flips to prevent teachers from getting ousted.
Since the UFT helps pick arbitrators — a mammoth conflict of interest — the jerks, usually lawyers (or is that redundant?), have good reason to protect teachers. It helps them keep their jobs.
In Gibbons’ case, school investigators caught him on tape in 1995 begging a girl, an Indian immigrant who feared and worshipped him, not to press charges for brutalizing her during their long sexual relationship.
Well, arbitrator Margaret Leibowitz found the evidence, including the smoking-gun taped confession, to be insufficient! She did nothing.
It’s disgusting. And the behavior is contagious. One hot-to-trot Manhattan Theatre Lab HS global-studies teacher, Julie Warning, 26, made out with 18-year-old Eric Arty in a Greenwich Village park last week.
She was moved from the classroom but escaped criminal charges because lover boy was of legal age.
The young man, incidentally, won $400 in a bet with four pals over who’d be the first to get some off the teacher. Let’s see her get fired.
And Erin Sayar, a 36-year-old dingbat who is married with kids, was arrested for enjoying repeated hookups with 16-year-old Brooklyn James Madison HS student Kevin Eng during tutoring sessions that included not a single textbook.
In May, Hunter Science HS history teacher Margaret Ann Riordan, 31, was sued for having sex with a 16-year-old kid in 2010 — and for allegedly introducing him to “sexual positions, self-hatred, depression and suicide,” the boy’s mother claims.
Mayor Bloomberg has unveiled a bill in Albany that would let Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott fire pervy teachers, no questions asked. Unsurprisingly, the move drew howls from UFT President Michael Mulgrew, who’s shown that kids are a low priority.
The number of teachers caught having sex with students is climbing. And victims are too young to understand that they are being used and abused. They don’t even have the power to say, “No.’’
Get rid of the arbitrators at once! Don’t serve up another generation of kids to monsters.
Edwards back as a pol? God help us!
The sleaze doesn’t get it, and never will.
After a North Carolina jury deadlocked on most charges against him, former senator, presidential candidate and current jackass John Edwards hinted that he may stage a political comeback.
“I don’t think God’s through with me,’’ he said. “I really believe He thinks there’s still some good things I can do.’’
Edwards stood trial on charges he illegally spent nearly $1 million in campaign donations to hide his pregnant mistress from his dying wife. Jurors cleared him of one charge, but couldn’t agree on five more. Afterward, Edwards evoked his 4-year-old daughter, born to mistress Rielle Hunter, a child whose paternity he once denied on national TV.
“My precious Quinn, who I love more than any of you would ever imagine, who I am so close to and so grateful for,’’ he said, choking back tears.
See you in hell.
Boss’ lame lefty tune
Bruce Springsteen should trade his New Jersey estate for a tent in Zuccotti Park.
Playing the Berlin stadium that hosted both Hitler’s 1936 Olympics and the 2006 World Cup final, the multimillionaire musician, 62, took a fierce slap at evil bankers.
“In America, a lot of people have lost their jobs, but also in Europe — and Berlin — times are tough,” he told the crowd in fluent German. (Who knew?)
Then he launched into “Jack of All Trades,’’ with the lyric “Banker man grows fat, working man grows thin.’’
This phony Joe Lunch Bucket for years has ragged on America’s supposed loss of civil liberties and zealous cops but gives a pass to terrorists and those who’d deprive us of the freedom to slurp a Big Gulp.
That’s showbiz.
Others also let Tyler down
Dharun Ravi reported to a New Jersey lockup last week to serve a 30-day sentence for spying with a Web cam on his Rutgers roommate and another guy kissing in 2010.
Days later, the roommate, Tyler Clementi, 18, killed himself by jumping off the George Washington Bridge.
So where are the other people who may have led Tyler to choose his demise?
Where is his mother, who Tyler said had “rejected’’ him for being gay?
Where is the 33-year-old lover “M.B.,’’ who saw Ravi’s Web cam but ignored it as he bedded Tyler?
Ravi should have company in his cell.
Doing the Bunny hop
She’s 26. He’s 86. Crystal Harris dumped Playboy magnate Hugh Hefner, famous for bedding multiple ladies simultaneously, five days before their planned wedding last year. Then she said Hef was a dud between the sheets.
Well, she’s back.
Crystal reportedly begged her way into the Playboy mansion, prompting Hef to kick out his latest live-in gal pal. Now, they may get hitched for real.
Ah, monogamy.