NEW YORK – New York City is paying teachers suspected of sexually abusing students millions each year to stay out of the classroom, including three who have earned a million apiece as “rubber room” educators.

The New York Post reports three “rubber room” teachers – educators who are accused of egregious misconduct, but can’t be fired or trusted around students – have amassed more than $1 million each in pay over the last decade while conducting menial tasks instead of teaching.

“If we don’t have trust for someone to be around students, they shouldn’t be a teacher,” Timothy Daly, president of The New Teacher Project, an education nonprofit, told the Post. “Thank God we’re not putting them back with students, but we’re forced to keep paying them indefinitely.”

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The frustrating situation is the result of state laws that make it extremely difficult to fire a tenured teacher, even for the most heinous offenses. The city’s top three “rubber room” teachers, along with another educator who makes $100,049 annually, have all won their jobs back after facing termination for serious student sexual abuse allegations. For a variety of reasons the teachers were ordered back to work through “due process” hearings with independent hearing officers who determine their fate.

Instead of putting the dangerous teachers back in the classroom, district officials opted to relocate them to other less important jobs to ensure they have no contact with students. Other educators accused of sexually abusing students, however, are often placed into substitute teaching positions, the Post reports.

The Foul Four, as the Post refers to them, cost the city a total of $373,271 per year, though they haven’t taught a class for years. That staggering figure doesn’t include their taxpayer-funded health benefits and other union perks. What’s worse is the annual expense continues to grow every year as these pedophile teachers receive automatic “step” pay increases outlined in their union contract, the news site reports.

The Foul Four include Aryeh Eller, a 48-year-old former music teacher at Hillcrest High School who told a female student in 1998 that she had “a beautiful face and body” and that her style of dress “disturbed him,” according to the Post.

Eller also pulled a different female student into a room alone and told her he loved her, and reportedly asked another girl to show him her butt. A hearing officer ruled Eller wasn’t told his rights and ordered him back to work. He’s now paid $86,590 per year to do next to nothing and hasn’t taught a class since 2003, the news site reports.

Wayne Miller, 48, an ex-science teacher at Jamaica High School, was accused of sexually assaulting a child, but the victim recanted and his case was dismissed. Although he hasn’t taught since 2002, he’s paid $82,478 per year by the city.

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Angel Salazar, 54, takes home $100,049 per year in pay, but the former history teacher and girls tennis coach at William Cullen Bryant High School in Queens hasn’t taught since 2010. Salazar was accused of inappropriately touching female students and telling them he wanted them as his wives. He also reportedly pressed his erection up against another female student when they were along together. A hearing officer dismissed his case, and sealed the contents, the Post reports.

George Addison, 51, was working as a computer teacher at the Queens School for Career Development when he was arrested on allegations he put his hand down the shirt and pants of a 15-year-old student. He was pulled out of the classroom in 2004. He hasn’t taught since, but despite three prior arrests for similar bad behavior, city officials did not have enough evidence to fire him and he now collects $94,154 to do not much at all, according to the news site.

These disgusting ramifications of the state’s union-friendly tenure laws prompted several parents to file a lawsuit seeking to loosen the termination restrictions in the wake of Vergara v. California – a landmark ruling that found the Golden State’s tenure laws unconstitutional.

It seems obvious that taxpayers should not be forced to pay the wages of teachers who abuse their trust to prey on innocent students, but the sad reality is that’s exactly what happening in school districts across the country every day.

New York City officials thankfully opt to pull these misbehaving teachers from the classroom, but many other school districts can’t afford that luxury, and are forced to place dangerous teachers back in the classroom where many continue their bad behavior.

In other cases, union and school district officials conspire to negotiate secret deals that exchange a letter of resignation from an accused teacher for a letter of recommendation from the school district, sometimes with a severance, as well. The practice, known as “passing the trash,” also allows child molesting educators to move on to abuse students when they regain employment.

The bottom line is teacher tenure often allows educators who abuse students to get away with their crimes and continue to receive pay, courtesy of taxpayers. That alone should be enough of a reason for lawmakers to significantly amend or abolish tenure protections, and finally put student interests ahead of adult employment perks.