A Queens middle-school teacher let a 14-year-old student drive his car, gave him cash and expensive gifts, and exchanged hundreds of texts behind his parents’ back.
But, over the objections of the outraged parents and principal, the teacher can keep his job, an arbitrator has ruled.
James Rampulla Jr., 44, who taught at Irwin Altman MS 172 in Floral Park, sent some of the 513 texts to the boy after 11 p.m. and included the words “I love you,” according to evidence presented at the teacher’s administrative trial.
The boy also told investigators that Rampulla, while they both worked at World of Discovery Summer Day Camp in Bayside, once put a hand on his thigh, and let him watch pornography in his apartment, according to a report by Richard Condon, the special commissioner of investigation for city schools. Rampulla denied those allegations.
After an eight-day trial, hearing officer Mary J. O’Donnell found Rampulla guilty of misconduct, but not sexual misconduct as the city Department of Education contended. She suspended him without pay for the fall of 2014. He can return to the classroom after that, she ruled.
The case shows how an educator can avoid the ax even for blatant misbehavior. A tenured teacher cannot be fired unless a hearing officer agrees misconduct warrants termination.
But O’Donnell found insufficient evidence to decide whether Rampulla’s interest in the student was “paternal, familial or sexual.”
The investigation began after the teen’s father learned the teacher had given his son at least $200, Air Jordan sneakers, True Religion jeans and a Wii video-game console, Condon’s report says. The father became so concerned that his son and Rampulla were hiding their cellphone communications that he blocked the teacher’s number on the boy’s phone and finally took the phone away, according to the report.
The boy told investigators he met Rampulla at MS 172, when the teacher, also a school coach, stopped him in the hall and urged him to join a sports team. In the summer of 2012, the boy and two other students got jobs at World of Discovery, where Rampulla is an assistant transportation director.
The 14-year-old told probers that Rampulla let him drive his car seven or eight times to run lunch errands. In the trial, he testified that Rampulla let him drive to Long Island amusement park Adventureland — a highway trip that took 45 minutes to an hour — as well as a Chinese restaurant, Modell’s, the Roosevelt Field mall, the movie theater and an American Eagle store. O’Donnell found the allegations of long excursions and highway driving not credible.
Rampulla, who called himself “Uncle Jimmy” to the kids, let another underage boy drive his car, O’Donnell found. Rampulla also drove the boy home to his apartment, but dropped him off down the street “to avoid detection from parents,” she wrote.
Rampulla testified that he let the boys drive only in a coned-off parking lot at the camp, but admitted it was a “lapse in judgment.”
A World of Discovery lawyer said the camp did not learn about the allegations against Rampulla until September 2013, after summer camp had ended. It has assigned him to work solely at the bus company in Whitestone this summer. “He’s not working with any children,” a spokesman said.
MS 172 Principal Jeffrey Slivko testified that he did not want Rampulla, who had no prior disciplinary record, back at the school because he “demonstrated poor judgment and violated his trust, and that of the parents and the students.”
The DOE indicated it will not appeal the decision. Rampulla, who makes $86,590 a year, will join a pool of teachers without permanent assignments who work as substitutes, a spokesman said.
O’Donnell noted that Rampulla emailed the boy’s mom: “I hope u can find it in your heart to forgive me. I’m, not a bad person. I tried to be something I’m not. I’m not in your family; or related and I forgot that.”
Among the texts sent by Rampulla to the teen:
“They match those fancy jeans I got u. They look good on u im sure. Anything looks good on u bud.”
“if u play tomorrow I will sneak to you the money for the sneakers.”
“Hopefully I c u tomorrow nt at ball. Lobe (sic) u bud so much Uncle Jimmy”