Charter school’s union president fired after egg allergy incident
“Your decision to contact parents is baffling to me, given the fact that you had the opportunity to finish the year out with these students, but you chose not to,” Mr. Ankrum wrote to Ms. Wehrheim at 9:14 p.m. Wednesday, according to an e-mail she forwarded to the News-Review.
“Therefore, your termination is effective immediately,” the email reads.
She told the News-Review on Thursday that she had contacted the parents of the girl with allergies, as well as another parent who also happens to be a local school district employee for advise on how to handle her situation.
She also reached out to New York State United Teachers representatives, she said.
Ms. Wehrheim said the reason she was given for being forced out was that she had not informed administrators about the egg contact the day it happened, though she and the child’s parents said there was some confusion on whether it was the egg or dust that caused the girl’s allergic reaction due to ongoing school construction at the campus.
She said she called the school nurse after she noticed the girl’s eyes were swelling and itchy.
(Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story may have given the impression the teacher did not call the nurse. She did. At that point, however, it was not known or assumed the allergic reaction had anything to do with contact with eggs.)
The girl’s mom told the News-Review on Thursday that both she and her husband visited the school Friday morning to further explain what happened, and to plead for their daughter’s teacher’s job.
“[Ms. Wehrheim] thought, like most other people would, that her allergies came by ingesting the eggs,” said the mom, Linda Filosa of Mastic. “But my daughter is among those 2 percent of people that even if she touches it, she could get a reaction in that way.
“They were touching eggs in class … but in her defense, and this is coming from the mother, they had assumed it was a result of the renovations in the building. It wasn’t some sort of cover-up or something like that; they just didn’t realize.”
She said she had previously spoke to school officials as well, though “they seemed to have their minds made up.”
Ms. Wehrheim also pointed out to a reporter that the union’s vice president was fired last year.
That former employee, Lacey Branker, told the News-Review she was also given an ultimatum in April 2013 to resign or be fired, and believed she was terminated from her job as a school social worker because of her union position — and because, she said, she would “challenge” Mr. Ankrum on some assertions he would make about children and parents.
“The problem with this situation [at the school], to be honest with you, is having someone with so much power and control,” she said, “and is not using it in the most effective ways — where you can really enhance the children’s abilities — and now the staff has become intensely divided. And it’s gotten worse.”
She and Ms. Wehrheim both said three other union officers resigned within the last year as well.
Ms. Wehrheim said her problems at the school — which included getting the silent treatment from Mr. Ankrum since February — began after a flap between Mr. Ankrum and union leaders in December resulted in her contacting New York State United Teachers, a statewide teachers union organization, and, ultimately, the complaints filed with the state.
Mr. Ankrum referred calls for comment to the school’s legal representation.
“Mr. Ankrum is doing nothing of the sort,” attorney Sharon Berlin said of allegations that Mr. Ankrum was targeting the union or union leaders. “He’s trying to run a school and have the best quality staff he can have. And when there are health and safety violations or violations of procedure and protocol, or actions that just violate common sense, then he’s going to act on it regardless of union status.”
