SKIPPING CLASS TO WRESTLE,TEACHER LANDS IN TROUBLE
  • 07/01/2005 (10:48:14 am)
  • Georgiann Makropoulos

Teacher turned pro wrestler wants his job back….

Thanks to MikeInformer:
Newsday article
 
A former Queens teacher wants his job back even though he resigned when investigators found that his mother called in sick for him so he could compete in a professional wrestling tour in Japan last December.

City investigators used the fan Web site of Matthew Kaye, aka "Striker," to match his wrestling dates with those in doctor's notes he provided.
 
"It's fraud, 100 percent," Kaye, 31, who taught social studies at Benjamin Cardozo High School in Bayside, freely conceded Thursday, but he said he didn't know he could have taken personal days for his competitions.

"Given the fact that there are teachers out there that molest students and beat students, I fail to see how four days is something that they were going to so aggressively pursue," he said.

Kaye said he goes on tour to supplement his teacher's pay of about $42,000. On his fan Web site, he wrote that he realized "the honor, the dream, the prestige" of wrestling in Japan when he landed there for a four-day tour Dec. 16.

That was about the time his mom called to say Kaye would be out on a "family emergency," according to a report from Richard Condon, special commissioner of investigations for city schools.

Kaye later turned in a note from Dr. James Liguori in New Hyde Park for the six days he was out in December, investigators said. Kaye Thursday said he had the flu and visited Liguori the day of the plane trip to get the OK to fly. But according to Condon's report, Kaye told school officials after he returned from the holidays that he had to bring his sister from California to New York for medical treatment.

Then in February, Kaye was on tour again in Philadelphia for a World Wrestling Entertainment "SmackDown!" event and had a note from Dr. Mitchell Locke in New Hyde Park, saying he was examined Feb. 14 and wouldn't be able to return to work until Feb. 28, investigators said.

Someone tipped off school officials to Kaye's trip, leading to an investigation.

Condon has referred both doctors to the state Department of Health Office of Professional Medical Conduct.

Liguori said he saw Kaye for "legitimate medical reasons."

"If he did anything that was illegal, I was completely unaware of it," Liguori said.

Calls to Thursday late yesterday were not returned.

Kaye, who has been teaching for four years, including one year for the city, said he took his attorney's advice to keep his teaching license by resigning in April, but didn't cash his paycheck for a month to show he was "remorseful."

"I didn't deposit my last check because I thought that would be a show of my intention," he said. "I told them I'd work overtime without pay. I told them I'd do anything I could to keep my job."
 
The papers all thought this was such a huge story that every New York Paper has carried it.  New York Times, New York Post, Daily News on Page 3 and the NewsDay. 

 

 

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