Peculiarities

New York City has 38,000 schoolteachers. Dr. Emil Altman is an excitable, potbellied little man who has charge of keeping tabs on their physical and mental condition. Few years ago he made national headlines when he charged that no fewer than 1,500 of the city's teachers were off their rockers, many of them "crackpots" (TIME, April 9, 1934). Ever since, Dr. Altman has tried with might & main to purge the crackpots.

He got the Board of Education to bring to trial and dismiss a teacher named Angela D'Auria, who had told her pupils that a janitor was sending up "fumes" through the classroom ventilators. But Mrs, D'Auria appealed her ouster, and State Education Commissioner Frank Pierrepont Graves found Mrs. D'Auria's dismissal too severe a punishment, ordered her reinstated. (Eventually, the School Board had her retired for disability.)

Last year Dr. Altman tried again. He called to his office for examination 250 teachers reported unfit by their principals. Only one who failed to appear was a 54-year-old high-school teacher named Mary B. C. Byrne, whose principal had accused her of "classroom peculiarities." Last fall the Board of Education found her guilty of insubordination, ordered her dismissed unless she submitted to examination or applied for retirement. She did neither, was dismissed. Thereupon Miss Byrne, like Mrs.D'Auria, filed an appeal. Last week Commissioner Graves ordered Miss Byrne reinstated. Furthermore, he ruled that the School Board had no legal right to examine a teacher unless she had a contagious disease.

Astounded, Superintendent of Schools Harold George Campbell exclaimed: "Most unfortunate! . . . Certainly the board by some means should be able to guarantee to the public that all of its teachers are mentally and physically fit."

Next day, a substitute teacher named Ellen S. Matthews marched into the office of Associate School Superintendent Jacob Greenberg, Dr. Altman's boss. Miss Matthews demanded a permanent job. Superintendent Greenberg explained the procedure for getting one. Suddenly Teacher Matthews seized an inkwell on his desk, let fly. Mr. Greenberg ducked. Teacher Matthews screamed, seized more inkwells, a lamp, whatever else happened to be handy, chucked them at nimble Mr. Greenberg. Police carried Miss Matthews off to Bellevue Hospital's psychopathic ward. Dr. Altman was not surprised. Said he: "It's a lucky thing she didn't throw those things at her pupils instead of Dr. Greenberg."

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