A veteran Queens math teacher was yanked from the classroom this week after a cell phone video posted online showed him getting into a confrontation with and possibly spitting on a student.
Department of Education officials said they are investigating 19-year veteran David Pecoraro, a vocal union leader at Beach Channel HS in Far Rockaway, on allegations of corporal punishment.
WARNING: VIDEO CONTAINS GRAPHIC LANGUAGE
An 80-second video that was posted onto YouTube last week captures the alleged incident but doesn’t provide a clear answer on what the teacher did.
Toward the end of the clip, Pecoraro approaches a disrespectful student who’s been covering his head with his jacket the whole time.
With his arm by his mouth, Pecoraro makes a sharp sound that resembles a spitting noise and that makes the student filming the confrontation laugh out loud.
The misbehaving kid responds by spitting in the teacher’s face and jumping up, after which Pecoraro pushes him away and the filming stops.
At the very end of the clip Pecoraro can be seen wiping off his own face.
“The kid put gum he had tried to put on my rear end that was already chewed and that was on his desk in my mouth — and I spit it out,” Pecoraro told The Post. “Then he spit in my face.”
The video starts with the teacher already in a confrontation with the kid, telling him “You can’t make contact with me. That’s illegal!”
He then leans over him and continues to deliver a math lesson in a loud voice near the student’s ear.
When Pecoraro tries to remove the coat, the student flails and appears to make contact with the teacher.
“You want to go to jail now? You don’t touch me!” Pecoraro says.
“What the hell you want from me?” the kids responds, punctuated with a number of nasty words.
“I want to teach you math,” Pecoraro responds.
Before he makes the spitting sound, Pecoraro can be heard loudly saying, “Woah! That is yours.”
DOE officials said Pecoraro, who earns $100,000, was reprimanded in 2003 for using poor judgment in removing headphones from a kid.