Opinion
April 20, 1987
Adjudged that the determination is confirmed and the proceeding is dismissed on the merits, with costs.
The petitioner, Bernard H. Weaver, Jr., was dismissed from his position as a tenured school teacher following two hearings pursuant to Education Law § 3020-a, upon the hearing panel's findings that he was guilty of multiple charges of insubordination and conduct unbecoming a teacher. Specifically, the charges concerned, inter alia, his refusal to obey a directive by the district superintendent ordering him to cease and desist from residing with a 16-year-old former male student of the petitioner, who was still attending school in the district and who had left his mother's home to reside with the petitioner over the express objections of the mother. The petitioner was also charged with encouraging and assisting the student to leave his mother's home, including waiting outside the student's house with a loaded gun on the night the student was to leave home.
Based on the testimony in the record, the hearing panel's determinations were clearly supported by substantial evidence and cannot be said to have been arbitrary or capricious. We decline to substitute our judgment for that of the hearing panel and accordingly confirm the determination (see, Matter of Pell v Board of Educ., 34 N.Y.2d 222; Matter of Donnelly v Carmel Cent. School Dist., 109 A.D.2d 796). Moreover, we do not find the imposition of the penalty of dismissal to be so shocking under the existing circumstances that it should be set aside (see, Matter of Short v Nassau County Civ. Serv. Commn., 45 N.Y.2d 721; Matter of Pell v Board of Educ., supra; Kaczala v Board of Educ., 123 A.D.2d 668).
We have reviewed the petitioner's remaining contentions and find them to be without merit. Thompson, J.P., Brown, Niehoff and Rubin, JJ., concur.