But hey, at least he was a team player

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If ever there were an example of how NTs can squeak by if they
schmooze the right people, while some folks who are more skilled get
trodden upon...

...thought admittedly, this one is at the far end of the bell curve.


http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/ ... 0502c.html

Schoolhouse crock

Probe: Teach couldn't pass N.Y. exam so paid man $2 to take it

BY LISA MUÑOZ, JONATHAN LEMIRE and JOE WILLIAMS
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Rubin Leitner, who is developmentally disabled, sits outside his
Brooklyn home, saying Bronx teacher Wayne Brightly (below) paid him
to take state exam.

A Bronx teacher who repeatedly flunked his state certification exam
paid a formerly homeless man with a developmental disorder $2 to
take the test for him, authorities said yesterday.

The illegal stand-in - who looks nothing like teacher Wayne
Brightly - not only passed the high-stakes test, he scored so much
better than the teacher had previously that the state knew something
was wrong, officials said.

"I was pressured into it. He threatened me," the bogus test-taker
Rubin Leitner told the Daily News yesterday after Special Schools
Investigator Richard Condon revealed the scam.

"I gave him my all," said Leitner, 58, who suffers from Asperger's
syndrome, a disorder similar to autism. "He gave me what he thought
I was worth."

Brightly, 38, a teacher at one of the city's worst schools, Middle
School 142, allegedly concocted the plot to swap identities with
Leitner last summer. If he failed the state exam again, Brightly
risked losing his $59,000-a-year job.

"I'm tired of taking this test and failing," Brightly told Leitner,
according to Condon's probe. "I want you to help me."

Along with being much smarter than Brightly, Leitner is 20 years
older. He also is white and overweight while Brightly is black and
thin. Yet none of those glaring differences apparently worried
Brightly.

"He said no one would ever know," Leitner said outside the
Brownsville, Brooklyn, building he has called home since briefly
living on the streets.

The two men met years ago at Brooklyn College where Leitner earned
bachelor's and master's degrees in history in the late 1970s, and
Brightly got a bachelor's degree in 1992. After meeting in the
alumni office, Leitner began tutoring the teacher as he struggled to
pass the state exam, officials said.

But the relationship took a bizarre turn just weeks before the test
last July, authorities said.

"He got tired of flunking it," said Leitner. "That was the thing
that sparked this desperate act."

Brightly allegedly helped Leitner obtain a counterfeit state
identification card that showed Leitner's photo with Brightly's
name. Using the bogus ID, the pair conned city educrats into issuing
Leitner a school ID card to use on test day, authorities said.

On July 17, Brightly allegedly picked up Leitner at his home and
drove him to Edward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn, where the
test was given. The teacher allegedly came back after the test was
over and drove Leitner back home, officials said.

After the exam, the state began investigating Brightly's passing
score. He sent Leitner to meet with officials, and Leitner claimed
to be Brightly - but the ruse failed, authorities said.

When The News went to Brightly's Mount Vernon home yesterday, a man
who strongly resembled him insisted Leitner took the test on his
own. The man, who appeared to be in his late 30s, denied being
Brightly - saying he was the teacher's son.

Brightly has been charged with coercion, falsifying business records
and other crimes. He has been taken out of his Baychester classroom
pending the outcome of the case.

About 19,000 teachers across the state take the certification exam
each year and roughly 95% pass. Teachers are required to be
certified - but the city has a temporary waiver from the state
because the Education Department has not been able to find enough
qualified instructors.

With Bethany Jenkins

Wayne Brightly's city schools career:

1992 - Began working as a substitute teacher at IS 171 in Brooklyn.
1994 - Became a substitute teacher at PS 7 in Brooklyn.
1995 - Became a substitute teacher at PS 65 in Brooklyn.
1998 - Became a teacher at IS 171.
2004 - Became a teacher at MS 142 in the Bronx.
2005 - Reassigned to a regional office job after he was charged.


Originally published on March 22, 2005

hmm, happens a lot.

My best 'friend' from high school asked to submit some of my drawings instead of her own, to art school. I guess I wanted her there too (I had been accepted the year before) as I was struggling socially. She got in. It didn't really occur to me to say no, or that it was wrong. I had problems refusing people. We are no longer friends, of course. I was used on many occasions by her.

Ah, are these the kind of people (Mr. Brightly, who obviously wasn't too bright) we're trusting kids to these days?

I earned a 2 year degree for a friend in Southern California back in the mid-70's. He registered, enrolled, and from then on, I attended all of the classes, did all of the assignments, took all of the exams and earned some good bucks doing it, while he got his degree. I had a lot of fun doing it, too. By then I was living in a complete fantasy world and this fit right in with everything else. It wasn't that he was too dumb to do it himself, he was just too busy, but needed the degree.