On Monday, Nov. 10, the office of New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced the arrest of a former Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake School District social worker under charges she lied about her credentials when applying for her job.
Maria Geizer, 38, of Grand Central Avenue in Saratoga Springs, worked as a social worker at Charlton Heights Elementary School from 1999 to 2003, then at the Richard O’Rourke Middle School from 2003 to 2007.
She allegedly claimed to have a master’s degree in psychologya requirement to be a social workerwhen she applied at Community Human Services of Glenville, which contracts social workers to the school district. She also allegedly claimed to be licensed by the New York State Education Department when, in fact, she was not.
In 2006, Geizer allegedly altered her spouse’s mater’s degree certificate from the University at Albany and his New York State Education Department license by removing his name and inserting her own to satisfy a random fraudulent-billing audit by the New York State Office of the Medicaid Inspector General.
`Those who work in our educational system must meet the required criteria that the law has put in place,` said Attorney General Andrew Cuomo in a statement. `We trust our educators and other school personnel to be qualified and trained in order to properly interact with our children. Any breach of that trust not only violates New York state law, it may deprive our children of the care and quality service to which they are entitled.`
Geizer has been charged with unauthorized practice, grand larceny in the second degree and criminal possession of a forged instrument in the second degree. All charges are felonies. She was arraigned in the Glenville Town Court.
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