If it's sensational, it'll sell papers. That's the motto of most periodicals and the tack the New York Post was surely taking with this subhead: "Teachers watched porn on work computers, falsified records to pad their pockets, faked doctors' notes to go on vacation." The New York Department of Education received 2,886 misconduct accusations last year--the most ever. There was the substitute teacher who showed his class a soft porn video featuring himself, the teacher who took an unauthorized field trip to Cambridge and sent the students back on the bus alone, and the teacher who called in sick for a week to attend the Berlin Film Festival. Of 725 accusations probed, Special Commissioner of Investigation Richard Condon says 327 were substantiated--and almost all of the whistle-blowing came from teachers themselves. In a system with 140,000 employees, it's no surprise that there are a few (hundred) bad apples. But their brazenness is more than a little remarkable.
"More Teachers are Misbehaving," by Susan Edelman and Melissa Klein, New York Post, March 22, 2009