Aryeh Eller told a student that she had “a beautiful face and body” and said that the way
she dressed “disturbs him — he had a hard time teaching.” One day, he
pulled her into an empty room and blurted, “I love you.” He asked another student to lift her shirt to show her butt. “God bless, you have a nice ass,” he gushed.
Aryeh Eller
Aryeh Eller, 46, worked for only one year as a full-time music teacher in New York City public schools. For the following 13 years he has collected almost $1 million for doing mindless paperwork and answering phones in one of the school district's "rubber rooms" – places teachers who potentially pose a danger to students are assigned until their cases are resolved. In some rare instances, that can mean decades of clerical work paid at much higher teachers salaries. In Eller's case, that will mean 85,000 plus full benefits this year, his 14th in the "rubber room" – even though Eller reportedly admitted repeatedly sexually harassing female students.
The district wanted to fire him but was prevented from doing so on a technicality. So Eller sits and collects his check, and will probably do so for another two decades.
But to the district, it's worth it to pay Eller this way rather than have him in a classroom where he could hurt students.
According to the NY Post, here is some of what Eller did before he was yanked from the classroom in 1999:
[Hat Tips: Dr. Rofeh-Filosof, The Lion.]* Eller turned off the classroom lights during a movie, danced with open arms and touched a girl’s shoulder. “I screamed,” she told probers.
* He told another girl she had “a beautiful face and body” and said the way she dressed “disturbs him — he had a hard time teaching.” One day, he pulled her into an empty room and blurted, “I love you.”
* He asked one to lift her shirt to show her butt. “God bless, you have a nice ass,” he gushed.
* He admitted a “crush” on a girl, telling her she was “well developed” and “would make a good wife.” He hugged her “very tightly” and confided that “he wouldn’t just fall in love with any girl . . . and that age doesn’t matter.”