Karen Heitner, a principal in the Plainview-Old Bethpage Central School District who wasaccusedof inappropriately touching two female employees, pressuring four older female workers to retire and creating a hostile work environment for other employees, has been deemed not guilty of most charges filed against her by a public hearing officer and will retain her job with the district.
State-appointed hearing officer James Brown said in a decision issued on Tuesday, May 5, that the longtime principal of Pasadena Elementary School was guilty offive administrative charges, including charges involving one allegation where Heitner touched the butt of a district employee at a PTA luncheon in 2024.
State-appointed hearing officer James Brown found Karen Heitner, the longtime principal of Pasadena Elementary School in Plainview, guilty of five administrative charges. They included some of the most serious charges involving an occupational therapist’s allegation that the principal touched her buttocks at a PTA luncheon in June 2024.
Heitner was suspended with pay in August 2024 and the districtsought to fire herthrough 3020-a proceedings, which are typically private, but Heitner opted to have the hearings be public.
Rather than losing her job, the tenured principal will be suspended without pay for 30 days, according to the decision, and will then be reassigned to the administration office, working in a specialized area of elementary education administration, according to Mary O’Meara, the district’s superintendent. Her suspension will be in effect until June 4, according to the district.
“While there is no question that [Heitner]’s skill set has benefitted the District (as reflected in her performance evaluations), her insensitivity and unwillingness to serve as a proper role model for the entire community must be corrected,” Brown wrote in his 60-page decision.
Brown said that Heitner had invaded others’ personal space while also clearing the former principal of charges related to an employee’s allegation that she had touched their buttocks.
He also found Heitner guilty of making multiple sexual comments to different employees, and of making a teacher feel uncomfortable when the principal tried to set her up with a friend of hers.
Brown wrote that Heitner had a “troubling lack of sensitivity” in his decision.
Brown either exonerated Heitner or found insufficient evidence to prove guilt on the remaining charges alleged against her.
Source: LI Press
