Teacher charged with ‘inappropriate behavior’ causes havoc at school

A Staten Island teacher facing charges of “inappropriate behavior” towards a student caused havoc at his elementary school with a string of anonymous false claims of sexual misconduct against fellow teachers, the schools Special Commissioner of Investigation reported Tuesday.

James Burke, 27, also lodged anonymous false phone accusations against teachers at other schools, some of whom were related to his colleagues at PS 69, investigators said.

Department of Education officials on Staten Island were also wrongly accused.

Burke was unmasked after investigators found that the number of the phone that had been used to make at least one of the 13 false accusations was Burke’s, own, SCI said.

The case began on May 31, 2013 when a PS 69 dean lodged a complaint of inappropriate touching by Burke involving an autistic 8-year-old male student. Burke was reassigned after he refused to be interviewed by SCI investigators in July.

On July 26, an anonymous caller, claiming to be the father of a male 2nd-grader at PS 69, accused a female teacher of touching the private parts of his son several times in their classroom.

SCI referred to the case to the NYPD, which sent the Staten Island Special Victims Squad to investigate. The accused teacher was “very distraught” and denied doing anything wrong when questioned. Investigators determined the accusation was bogus because the boy did not live with his father and never had a relationship with him.

On August 5 an anonymous male told SCI that a female paraprofessional at the PS 58 on Staten Island caressed the genital area of an 8-year-old autistic boy and hit him with his own hand when he did not follow her order.

The pupil and paraprofessional denied to police that the incident happened.

The fake complaints and subsequent investigations were repeated — again and again — through October 21, 2013.

“A pattern emerged,” SCI chief Richard Condon wrote in his report to Chancellor Carmen Farina. The accused people “were witnesses against Burke, members of their families or DOE employees at schools on Staten Island, including PS 69.”

The DOE brought disciplinary action against Burke and he agreed to resign effective March 31, SCI said.

A man who identified himself as Burke hung up when a reporter reached him by phone at his mother’s home.

Condon said he was referring his findings to the Staten island DA for possible further action.

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