914 N.Y.S.2d 339 | N.Y. App. Div. | 2010
Proceeding pursuant to CPLR article 78 (transferred to this Court by order of the Supreme Court, entered in Albany County) to review a determination of respondent which suspended petitioner’s teaching and school administrator certifications for one year.
Petitioner, who was certified as a teacher and school administrator, requested a hearing in response to a notice from respondent that a substantial question existed as to his moral character. When the hearing panel determined that petitioner lacked the good moral character necessary to be a teacher in this state and recommended suspension of his certificates for one year, petitioner appealed to respondent, who modified the findings of the panel but affirmed the recommended penalty. Petitioner then commenced this CPLR article 78 proceeding challenging respondent’s determination, and Supreme Court transferred it to this Court pursuant to CPLR 7804 (g).
Our review of a determination rendered by respondent in this context is limited to whether it is arbitrary and capricious, irrational, affected by an error of law or an abuse of discretion
Here, petitioner admitted that, in July 1989, when he was 28 years old and a high school physical education teacher, coach and athletic director, he had sexual intercourse with an 18-year-old former student in his vehicle after taking her to a New York Mets baseball game shortly after graduation. He also admitted that, in July 1992, then 31 years old and still employed in the same capacity, he had sexual intercourse with another 18-year-old former student in his vehicle after taking her to a Mets game shortly after graduation. Petitioner taught both girls during high school, coached them as members of the high school girls’ soccer team, coached high school boys’ teams for which both girls served as statisticians and, prior to graduation in the spring of these girls’ respective senior yéars, attended Mets games with each of them. Based upon this pattern of behavior in affording the girls preferential treatment while they were students, including the pre-graduation trips to Mets games, respondent concluded that petitioner had groomed them for a sexual relationship while they were students and then, shortly after they graduated, exploited the relationships that he had cultivated.
Petitioner’s primary contention is that respondent’s conclusion regarding grooming of the students prior to graduation is irrational. He argues that he did not invite the students to the pre-graduation Mets games, each of the various factors considered by respondent is innocent by itself, and his character is unassailable. We cannot agree. Given the evidence of petitioner’s pattern of behavior with both girls, respondent’s determination that petitioner was engaged in grooming and that he lacks the requisite moral character to be a teacher in this state is supported by a rational basis (see Matter of Groht v Sobol, 198 AD2d at 681-682; Matter of Stedronsky v Sobol, 175 AD2d at 374-375). To the extent that petitioner disputes the findings
We have considered petitioner’s remaining contentions concerning the rulings of the Hearing Officer and the penalty imposed, and we find them to be similarly without merit.
Mercure, J.E, Peters, Malone Jr. and Egan Jr., JJ., concur. Adjudged that the determination is confirmed, without costs, and petition dismissed.