Brooklyn teacher fakes stair fall to avoid review
Aug-05-2010

Maybe she should have just called in sick.

An untenured Brooklyn high-school teacher catapulted herself down a school stairwell in a wacky attempt to avoid a classroom observation by her supervisor, a probe obtained by The Post shows.

Staffers at the HS for Innovation in Advertising and Media told investigators that first-year teacher Ilene Feldman was so petrified about a scheduled classroom observation -- coming in the wake of a poor performance review -- that she staged a clumsy pratfall in a stairwell rather than risk getting a second negative rating.

Untenured teachers can be canned out of hand if they are rated unsatisfactory after any of their first three years on the job.

Administrators at the Canarsie school -- suspicious of Feldman's injury because it coincided with a classroom-observation meeting -- handed security-camera footage to school investigators after concluding that Feldman purposely fell down the stairs.

A review of the footage showed the 33-year-old novice teacher pausing on the fifth step of a narrow staircase and bending over to rummage through her handbag, according to a report by the Office of the Special Commissioner of Investigation.

She then glances toward the door as if listening for someone to approach.

"Feldman, who then appeared to hear someone coming, grabbed her handbag with her right hand, held the railing with her left hand, and slowly fell to the 2nd floor landing," the report said.

Despite bracing her fall with her arm, Feldman lands on her back with her arms extended up and out.

She reaches for her leg and makes "sounds as if she were in extreme pain" just as a concerned staffer enters the frame.

The footage "revealed that Feldman actually threw herself down the stairs in a controlled fall," said the report, which was completed last year but never before made public.

In an unrelated filing, Feldman claimed she fell because her foot got stuck on a stair -- possibly on a piece of a gum.
"When going to 'check it out,' to see what was on my shoe, I lost my balance and tripped/tumbled/fell down the rest of the stairs -- about 3 or 4," she wrote. "I hit my right knee on the stair."

Feldman was taken to a nearby hospital after the December 2008 topple, and she filed for four days of injury compensation for workdays missed.

When confronted by investigators, Feldman twice declined to watch frame-by-frame footage of her fall. She kept insisting her tumble wasn't a tall tale -- but quickly resigned.

Feldman could not be reached for comment.

City Department of Education officials said Feldman, who was earning $50,000 a year, has since been made ineligible for employment in the city schools system.

Posted by Clay Kohut at 12:00 AM - Link to this entry  |  Share this entry  |  Print