A Shenendehowa High School track coach has been suspended without pay following the discovery that his teaching certification was invalidated after investigation of an alleged sexual relationship with a student in 1990.
A recommendation to fire Donald J. Paretta will be made to the district’s board of education at its next meeting on Tuesday, March 7, said Superintendent L. Oliver Robinson.
Records from the New York State Education Department indicate that Paretta’s state certification as a teacher of physical education was invalidated in 1995, the same year he was hired at Shenendehowa. The NYSED sent out a blanket notice of the invalidation to schools statewide on Jan. 24, 1996.
The invalidation hinged on a 1992 investigation into Paretta by the Special Commissioner of Investigation for the New York City School District that found he had engaged in sexual activity with a student age 15 and the 16 years of age on several occasions between November 1989 and December 1990. Paretta was a teacher and track coach at the Humanities High School in New York City during that time.
The school district’s investigation and hearing on Paretta was a disciplinary measure, not a criminal matter. Criminal charges against Paretta were eventually dropped.
The investigation found that Paretta took the student to Aqueduct Race Track in November of 1990, and in the months afterward fondled him several times. The student’s journal tells of sexual activity between the two, and investigators recorded a conversation that indicated Paretta `would like to sleep with the student again,` according to the report.
The student’s mother alerted authorities after reading accounts of sexual activity in the diary.
Paretta gave the student a graduation card containing $20 and a note stating `I will certainly miss your gorgeous face and great looking body.`
Paretta admitted to having conversations with the teen about sexual orientation and fantasies, but denied any sexual contact.
`For a teacher to engage in private sexual conversations with a student, invite the student to his house, take the student alone on social excursions to the racetrack and elsewhere, and not rule out a sexual relationship with that student would alone indicate a lack of moral character on the part of the teacher,` wrote Hearing Officer F. Patrick Jeffers. `In my opinion, the facts clearly establish a sexual relationship existed between student and teacher and that the teacher was not averse to continuing that relationship after the student graduatedIt is my conclusion that the Department has established that Donald J. Paretta lacks the requisite moral character to continue to teach in the public schools of the state of New York.`
Paretta resigned his position at the Humanities High School after disciplinary proceedings began.
Kelly DeFeciani, a spokesperson for the district, said that no NYSED notification of the invalidation is on file at Shenendehowa
`All we can say is that we don’t have the notification on file,` said Kelly DeFeciani, a spokesperson for the district. `This was 14 years ago, none of the same people are even here.`
According to Tom Dunn, a spokesman for the New York State Education Department, all schools have access to an electronic database that will provide up to date information on an individual’s certification.
`If they put this fellow in they would know he was a bad customer,` said Dunn. `For 13 years, they’ve had the opportunity to look him up.`
DeFeciani said that the district uses the database to check the certification status of new hire, and periodically runs current employees through the system. A check of certifications for teachers`but not coaches`was recently completed, she said. The district also checks staff fingerprints, as mandated by state law.
District officials will be considering the possibility of a policy change in the coming weeks, said DeFeciani.
`Any time something like this happens, we do talk about the situation and talk about ways to make sure it doesn’t happen again,` she said.
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