What an ass!
A retired teacher hated his East Harlem high-school principal so much, he created a scathing blog that portrayed him as a back-stabbing sex fiend whose head is shaped like a human behind.
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Former math teacher Michael Thomas, 61, then stood outside Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics and gave students business cards that touted the Web site.
The targeted principal, José Jimenez — whom the blog calls “Jimanus” and “Prince Jimenez” — confronted Thomas about a block from the school on Jan. 10. He ended up on his back in the ensuing fight, and Thomas was charged with assault.
Thomas’ lawyer, Tom Kenniff, said it was a total frame job.
“We believe that this was a fictitious assault,” he said.
Thomas named his blog “MCSM Satire” — based on the school’s initials — posted under the name “Henry David Thoreau,” and dedicated it to Jimenez’s removal. It accuses him of seeking “pleasures of the flesh” at the school.
In a fake advice column called “Ask Jimenez,” a staffer is concerned about having an affair with a teacher that might jeopardize his career.
“Hubba, hubba!” the Jimanus character replies. “You should be giving me advice! There is nothing inappropriate about a relationship between two more or less consenting adults . . . Any teacher who reports or objects to the relationship is not a member of the school team and will be dealt with accordingly. You are living the dream!”
In one comic strip, Jimenez says, “All I need to know I learned in kindergarten . . . Be a bully. Do what you want. Lie if you get caught — and always play the part of the victim.”
In 2007, Thomas was banished to the Education Department’s notorious “rubber room” for throwing chalk at the board to get students’ attention, according to his lawyer.
That sparked a daylong protest by students and he was reinstated last year.
The popular teacher, who retired this summer after 19 years, has locked horns with Jimenez at least since 2008, according to Department of Education documents.
Thomas reported Jimenez’s alleged misuse of federal funds for high-poverty kids and falsifying of student results on the January 2008 Regents exams.
Jimenez has also run afoul of the DOE. In a report released by the Special Commissioner of Investigation, he was found to have “failed to follow standard operating procedures” by not getting competitive bids on an educational trip to Asia or for a consultant that billed the school more than $25,000.
Jimenez has not returned to work since the Jan. 10 fight with Thomas, and could not be reached for comment.
Additional reporting by Yoav Gonen