Schools

'Doc' Wollkind Gives His Account of 1992, 2010 Incidents

Suspended BHS teacher "Doc" Wollkind takes the stand in his defense.

During for the defense began its case, ending the day with Wollkind taking questions for the second time in the proceedings.

The first time, while , he stated numerous times that alleged incidents in the recent and more distant past did not occur in the manner in which they are recorded in his personnel file. Wollkind asked that he be allowed to tell his side of the story, however, by the rules of the proceedings, he was only able to respond to direct questions and not to elaborate further.

Wollkind’s attorney, Randy DiBella, chose not to cross-examine his client at that time, instead calling him as the fourth witness for the defense.

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Of the 18 recorded incidents in Wollkind’s file, he chose to clarify what occurred on three of those, an instance in 1992 where he was accused of denying a female student use of the bathroom and shoving her and the two incidents of November 18 that led to his current suspension and potential termination.

According to the record of events from 1992, a female student in Wollkind’s class asked to use the restroom, however Wollkind did not let her leave the class. After she persisted for a time, Wollkind allegedly told her to leave the classroom and go to another, across the hall, however the girl refused. At that point, Wollkind shouted for her to, “Goddamn it, get out,” and allegedly grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her out the door.

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The account from Wollkind’s perspective paints a different portrait of events.

According to Wollkind, the student was acting up in class before asking to leave for the bathroom.

“In my experience, if people want to go to the bathroom they ask you first,” he said, “They don’t start causing trouble first.”

“I continued trying to teach and continued to act up even worse, so I asked her to leave,” Wollkind continued. “They said I used profanity — I didn’t. I put my hand close to her shoulder or close to her elbow, or touched one or both, and told her to ‘GET UP and GET OUT!’”

While he may have been angry with the student, Wollkind denied pushing her or using profanity.

“Nowadays I do it differently,” he admitted. “Generally I’m much more tolerant. Now if I ask a kid to leave and they don’t leave, I tell the kid I’m going to get an administrator here to deal with the problem.”

Wollkind also noted that in that instance he grieved the complaint, however “the grievance was turned down,” though he was not suspended or disciplined.

Next, DiBella asked Wollkind to explain his version of the incidents that occurred on November 18, 2010. The first involved the BHS student that has been termed Student 21 for the purposes of the hearing, in which Wollkind embarrassed the student by insinuating he ate his homework.

“Often times when I have an assignment I want the kids to do in a succeeding class, I give them the materials I want them to do the class before,” Wollkind said, setting the stage for what happened that morning. “On Tuesday, sometime during the period, I gave everyone in class the homework for what I was going to give on Thursday and there kids weren’t there in class. So on Thursday, the first thing I did was give those three kids the piece of paper. Student 21, from the back of the room, said, “I didn’t get one of those,’ just like that, not asking for one or anything.”

For a moment, Wollkind said he considered that maybe he hadn’t given out the worksheet at all, and so he checked with the rest of the class to make sure he did.

“Everyone else got it, so I asked him, ‘Were you here’ — ‘Yes’ — ‘Then you got one of these pieces of paper because I personally went around and gave one to every student,’” Wollkind recounted. “I asked him, ‘Did you eat it?’ I would have said that to anyone in the class.”

Student 21, who had apparently been teased earlier in the year and even that day for being overweight, became extremely embarrassed, eventually sneaking out of the room later in the period and heading the media center before going to the office of Assistant Principal Joseph Palumbo.

Throughout the hearings, DiBella has worked to establish a difference between malicious intent and an attempt at humor. To that extent, he asked Wollkind if the statement to Student 21 was meant as a “zing,” a term used by Wollkind while speaking with the BHS administration.

“If he had said, ‘I didn’t bring mine,’ I’d have given him another one,” Wollkind answered. “That isn’t what he said.”

“It was meant to be a jocular comment,” he said of his response to the student. “It was not meant to be hurtful. In my meeting with [BHS Principal] Dr. [Bryan] Luizzi, he admitted that he did not think that I had any intent to hurt the boy. First of all, he is not overweight.”

Wollkind testified that once he noticed that Student 21 was embarrassed by his remark, “I said to him, ‘Obviously you wouldn’t have eaten it, it’s not edible.’”

“I guess I could have taken him out in the hallway,” he said in retrospect, “But I thought if I did at the time it would put a finger on it, it would embarrass him even more.”

Lastly, DiBella came to the second incident of November 18, in which Wollkind allegedly told a student in his study hall, Student 22, that he hated the student “since the day I was born,” according to the official record.

Wollkind vehemently denied ever using the word hate and portrayed his actions that afternoon as standard, necessary discipline.

“It was a quiet freshman study,” he explained, which is a silent work time for ninth grade students. “Every marking period you change the kids you have for those quiet studies — This was the third week, so the third time I met them, only.”

“A lot of kids get out on passes and I had a list for everybody who was there to put their name down. One kid was absent, that was Student 22,” he continued. “I’m sitting at my desk and a boy walks into my room, puts down a pass and I said, ‘Oh, it’s you.’”

At that point, Wollkind stated that Student 21 sat down next to another student and the two began to hit each other.

“I said to him, ‘I’ve disliked the way you’ve acted in every study since I’ve met you,’ and I moved him up to a desk right in front of me,” Wollkind said, adding, “I don’t think I’ve ever told a single person I’ve ever hated them in my whole life.”

In 2002, Wollkind was diagnosed as suffering from Asperger’s Disorder, a form of high-functioning autism that usually manifests with high intelligence but poor social skills. While Wollkind possess doctorates in math and physics, he has difficulty maintaining eye contact when speaking and his tone and inflection can often be misunderstood.

“Do you advise [your students] about this disorder,” DiBella asked.

“Ever since I’ve known about it, yes,” Wollkind answered.

“Do you talk to them about your social interaction issues,” DiBella asked.

the teacher responded. “You may not believe this, but I’m much better than I used to be. I was less tolerant when I first started teaching.”

“You’ve been described as demeaning, insulting to kids,” DiBella said, “What is your intent when you say something like that [the comment made to Student 21]?” 

“It was meant to be a light thing,” Wollkind said. “I do use humor, though I know it’s taboo around here.”

“Do you ask the arbitration panel to recommend that you continue your career?” DiBella asked as a final question.

“I do,” Wollkind responded firmly.

DiBella stated that he had a few more witnesses left to call before making final statements, so the panel scheduled a fourth hearing date for Wednesday, April 13, at 5:30 p.m.


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