Mona Lisa Tello, New York Teacher, Accused Of Faking Jury Letter To Skip School (VIDEO)

Mona Lisa Tello, a 61-year-old former teacher at a Manhattan graphic arts public school, has been accused of faking a jury summons in order to get paid for absences over the course of several months, WNYW TV reports.

According to the station, investigators say Tello submitted the letter to school officials, saying it was issued by the Superior Court of New Jersey.

The report states the investigation started when the principal suspected something wasn't right, and tallied the days Tello claims she missed for jury duty:

"In the investigation, it was determined that Tello had told the payroll department that absences on Sept. 16, 2010, Oct. 19,2010, Nov. 30,2010, Dec. 7 and 8, 2010, Jan. 21, 2011, Feb. 10 and 11, 2011, May 4, 11, 17, 18, 26, 27 and 31, 2011 were all due to jury duty."

The cause of the suspicion? According to the New York Post, the "court summons" misspelled "trial" as "trail," "cited" as "sited," and "manager" as "manger."

Tello was arrested after the principal called the court and found out the actual letter was a deferral of jury duty, and she was charged with forgery in the second degree, criminal possession of a forged instrument in the second degree and offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree.

CBS New York reports Tello denied the accusations when confronted by a reporter.

“No, not true," she told the station. "My handwriting is not on anything."

Nevertheless, the station reports she signed an agreement that mandates she pay a fine and resign her from her position without losing her pension.

Comments

[Janice Myers]

03:28 PM on 02/18/2012

part 6 continue

Mona Lisa Tello continued to work in pain and slowly she succumbed to severe sleep deprivation, memory loss, loss of direction, sleep apnea, panic attacks, heart irregularities and ankle pain. She was taken to the hospital several times from the school because of her heart.
At the end of the year she was constantly pressured to come up with a jury duty letter from the administration! She cried and told them she could not remember jury duty days and absent days.
I remember her telling me, " I need to get these hounds off of me so I can help the students pass the regents.That is all I care about.I am so confused I just have to get them off of me or I will die. She broke out in tears and cried for her mother who died suddenly and mysteriously. "I am so far away from my family trying to help these students and I could not even be near my mother when she was dying.My mother cried to me before she died. I feel so guilty" She cried and cried. I realized my colleague was very depressed and at her breaking point.

I do not believe that Ms.Tello owes the board of Education any money! They owe her! I know what happened my dear friend,

People are great for throwing rocks. May God forgive all of those who do not stand up to justice and just kick others.

[Janice Myers]

03:22 PM on 02/18/2012

part 5 continued

After the interview he had with Ms.Tello, he acted against her. She could have been dead in that classroom and nobody cared! A school is a people business and we worked in a horrible cut throat environment.

Shame on you Mr. Resnick. You knew Ms Tello was key to getting students to learn but you abused! And you just wanted to vindicate yourself and get rid of another senior teacher. You wanted to act right to the world after losing your criminal case. Yeah right. But other people know more!

Ms. Tello also fell down the escalator and sprained her neck, her ankle and bumped her knees. What a day! Traveling up and down with lab materials. We all did it. She crawled into the nurses offices but continued to give class. Jerod Resnick has the audacity of not signing her line of duty accident days and her ankle blew up till it could not move. The following year Ms. Tello was all over the building with a damaged ankle. Jerod Resnick took off for his knee surgery but did not let anyone else heal on their own injuries. Ms. Tello asked him for a leave of absence and he said no! I was not even going to ask him for that. He said it as if she would be a bad teacher if she asked for one. Other older teachers were just trying to stay clear of the attacks.

[Janice Myers]

03:20 PM on 02/18/2012

part 4

Mona Lisa Tello cried to me while we sat over a computer. She said,"I think I am going to die". Her heart was always racing." I got her some water and told her to just rest. She told me she was losing her memory and that she had prepared materials to help the student review for the state exam. At the end of the year we added up all the student scores and found that her students had an 85% passing rate. Which the assistant principals swept under the desks. Many times they would take her passing students and put them on other teachers list.But we were with a group of teachers and we saw the scores.

On one occasion her classroom was so hot because the windows were sealed because of repairs being made, that she passed out briefly. In that moment the two assistant came in to the classroom and wrote her up and reported it to the principal and interviewed the students.

[Janice Myers]

03:19 PM on 02/18/2012

part 3

Every day! She would work till 3:00 to 4:00 am everyday! writing differentiated lesson plans in Spanish and in English.

She was told she had to be watched because as an older teacher she may not want to try new things!! She could have taught the administration these new strategies. They knew she spent excessive amounts of hours researching to help the students get ahead. They didn't even recognize what differentiated instruction was when it was in front of them in her classes. They just wanted to tear the older teacher down and look like they where doing their job! The school was failing.

She did not stop because she did not want to let her guard down and she cared for her students.
She told the principal to please change her into an academy or department that would give her the technology tools the other teachers had. After all, technology was an important componet of a lesson plan. He said no! He said, I am on my way out and I don't care anymore! Mr. Resnick was forced to retire. She told him she could not continue spending so many hours in school and at night translating materials and creating reading and homework assignments. She offered to help by presenting simple differentiated lesson plans his answer was, "I don't care, you'll have to wait for the new principal for your moment of fame." She wasn't looking for fame. She was looking for management support.

[Janice Myers]

03:16 PM on 02/18/2012

part 2 continue:

The assistant principals always harassed older teachers making them feel like they were not efficient. Yet Ms.Tello surprised them with her tenacity and she was not easy to take down.

She wrote a letter to Jerod Resnick and met him to explain that she was in an academy that did not understand science teaching because they administrators where of other subject disciplines and most of her students did not belong to that department and she was not getting the necessary support. She told them she wanted to help with the new strategies in the hopes of helping out the new teachers and the school. Many of us were supported by Ms. Tello and she had excellant activities for the students.

She complained that her Spanish speaking students did not have Spanish earth science books or updated books like the English speaking students and that this affected there progress. In an effort to support the students Ms. Tello left the school every day late in the evening when the rest of us were gone. I wonder where did all the funds for Bilingual students went?

[Janice Myers]

03:12 PM on 02/18/2012

This comment is going to be placed in parts, Since you can't write it all at once.

part 1.

I am a teacher and a mother of a small child. Mona Lisa Tello is bilingual science teacher at Graphics High School. I witness how she suffered under the abuse of Jerod Resnick and his assistant principals. I remember she wrote a letter asking for his support. I read this letter and I can tell you that the fault of all this problem was his.Ms. Tello was an abused teacher by the administration.

The school was experiencing rating problems and the staff was reassigned to different academies within the building and the departments were broken up. So there was no science department. She was put into an academy with administrators that did not how to teach science especially differentiated instruction. Her years of creativity and knowledge gave her an edge over them but at the same time she was a target for being a senior teacher.

[twinkie1cat]

12:06 AM on 01/13/2012

I had a co-worker, lousy teacher had her para professional do all the work and then paid her under the table for it (very smart para) and she would fake injuries. One year she had been at a special program with one student for a few weeks and when she was on her last day she supposedly twisted her ankle. It was the day before Christmas Break but she did not go to the doctor until after the two week break so she could get paid time off for it. Strange how she was just fine until it was time to go back to work. She got away with it because her best friend and co-worker was an incompetent teacher who was a first cousing of an Associate Superintendent. Sometimes even teachers are severely flawed, but 95% are good if they have the right degrees and experience.

[George Schmidt]

05:00 PM on 02/17/2012

This is the most rediculous thing I ever heard in my whole life. You must be sick!

[twinkie1cat]

12:00 AM on 01/13/2012

I think she needed a mental health day.

[Robyn Singleton]

01:03 PM on 01/12/2012

Wow. These teachers are bold and stupid. Lol

[am10]

10:09 PM on 01/11/2012

Okay, lying to get a day off is one thing; this is completely different. Shame on her. My teacher husband got stuck on a federal grand jury and it stunk. Two days a month for 18 months. The only plus is that he'll probably never have to do jury duty again.

[cgin]

09:47 PM on 01/11/2012

News flash! This happens in all walks of life in diferent degrees. Some get away with it and some don't. Of course there are bad lazy teachers, just as there are bad and lazy doctors, police officers, firemen and so on. So what’s news worthy here? Could it be that teachers and non-uniformed public employees are now in vogue as political escape goats, and therefore easy targets???

[PhineasGage730]

04:28 PM on 01/12/2012

You must be kidding. I'm an was once a teacher and still work with kids, as well as being a liberal and for unions.

This has nothing to do with any of that. A teacher getting caught because of middle school misspellings as well as unrealistic dates for jury duty is the story.

Yes there are people that are not for the teachers unions and do want to hurt them, but to use that on this story is just sad.

Take a deep breath. Get some thicker skin. And (more importantly) use common sense.

[pocahantis4]

04:40 PM on 01/11/2012

Unfortunately having delt with this teacher firsthand, she got what she deserved... She couldn't handle the kids in any of her classrooms having failed almost her entire student body... Yes the principal should have caught her sooner... Glad to see her go.. Maybe now my daughter will learn something in science instead of learning how to cheat the system...

[Ariel Bonzai]

10:11 PM on 01/11/2012

I don't know her, but I agree. Her spelling is cause alone. I am a lazy typo queen, not good at spelling, but if its something where my Vera igu and credibility are at stake, I am on top of those things. I have mental health days as we call them, but this lady is nt a good role model.

[Amminadab]

04:12 PM on 01/11/2012

Smoe popele tinhk selpnilg is the snlgie msot iprmtnaot aecpst of wretitn cumomnitocain. Tihs povreos tehm wonrg.

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.

Fnnuy how taht wrkos, the biarn is anazimg.

[caffeinedrone]

08:15 PM on 01/11/2012

"Some people think spelling is the single most important aspect of writing communication. This proves them wrong.

According to research at an English university, it doesn't matter in what order the letters in a word are, the only important thing is that first and last letters is at the right place. The rset can be a total mess and you can still read it without a problem. This is because we do not read every letter by it self bu the word as a whole.

Funny how that works, the brain is amazing."

Took 60 seconds :)

[Ariel Bonzai]

10:13 PM on 01/11/2012

It's no fun reading it. If you want people to get your message you do you best to abide the conventions.

[kisskins]

03:58 PM on 01/11/2012

Seems to me that she has made the same "spellcheck" mistakes that I have...

[myaa]

03:57 PM on 01/11/2012

If she, being a teacher, spells this bad...she NEEDS to go to jail!