A Bronx teacher at notoriously bad Middle School 142 was charged this week with coercion, falsifying business records and other crimes following the discovery that he paid a former homeless man two dollars to take his state certification exam. The teacher, Wayne Brightly, was "tired of flunking" and was scared of losing his $59,000 salary if he failed again. Brightly is a 38-year-old tall black man; Rubin Leitner, his exam "fill-in," is a 58-year-old overweight white man with Asperger's Syndrome. "No one would ever know," Brightly promised. And apparently on exam day, no one was the wiser. It wasn't until Leitner passed the exam, scoring much, much higher than Brightly ever had in the past, that state officials realized something was awry. Read the full story: it's too good to miss.
"Schoolhouse crock," by Lisa Munoz, Jonathan Lemire, and Joe Williams, New York Daily News, March 23, 2005
"Klein furious over 'dunce' teacher," by Kathleen Lucadamo and Joe Williams, New York Daily News, March 24, 2005