Ruling: NJ teacher who's also acts loses job because he showed 8th-graders bed scene film clip

Published January 08, 2015

A New Jersey teacher with a second career as an actor is losing his job after an arbitrator concluded that he showed students a clip of himself in bed with an actress.

Technology teacher Richard Graffanino denied showing the film clip to six eighth-grade girls at River Dell Middle School in River Edge. A tenure arbitrator ruled Tuesday the evidence showed otherwise.

The arbitrator says the scene conveyed the impression that the characters were waking up after having sex. A sheet covers the woman just below her bare shoulders and the shirtless Graffanino up to his waist.

The arbitrator says seeing the 39-year-old teacher "as an actor in a sexual situation would be confusing and disturbing to the students."

Graffanino tells The Record newspaper the girls gave conflicting testimony and the investigation was unfair.

URL

https://www.foxnews.com/us/ruling-nj-teacher-whos-also-acts-loses-job-because-he-showed-8th-graders-bed-scene-film-clip