The story is relatively fresh but reading it leaves a bitter aftertaste and foul whiff that is vintage Chancellor Klein.

The New York Times on October 22 reported that a librarian at Brooklyn Tech High School, a veteran of 39 years as an educator, was fined $500 by the city's Conflict of Interests Board because he had violated the city's ethics code. The damning evidence, developed by the sticky gumshoes at the Department of Investigation, was the librarian's admitted inclusion of a new edition of "Macbeth" on a display table of literature he recommends. In a sparsely circulated newsletter he also cited it as "best new book."

The violation stemmed from the fact that the librarian's daughter is the book's co-illustrator. No assignments or extra credits were involved and there would be no royalties or other financial reward. The book stands on its merits; the link between artistic achievement and father's pride was fortuitous.

The book was pulled from the shelves, expunged from the catalogue and removed from the library.

Actually the librarian was lucky, because the Conflict of Interest Board reduced the penalty from one of spectacular injustice to one of merely grotesque injustice. Originally they had sought a $1,000 fine and warned him that he might lose his job and teaching license.

Only the unthinkable is plausible with the DOE and its surrogates.

The Conflict of Interest Board also has a soft touch now and then. Recently it ruled that it was peachy keen for the City Council to extend or abolish term limits to give CPR to their careers, regardless of the contrary wishes of voters as expressed in two referendums.

The librarian certainly wasn't looking for trouble and neither was I when a few years ago I was found guilty for identifying upon a student's persistent request, a highly respected educational website that had once included me among its legion of contributors. I didn't promote or advertise it and got or had no potential to get any personal profit from it, but that made no difference to them. They had to produce numbers to justify their post-retirement gig with the city.

But they too have their empathies, make no mistake about it.

The principal of a Queens high school is the author of a textbook that was in mandatory use by students at his school at least as of a few years ago. I'm not sure whether the students were required to purchase a copy but I suspect so. In a blaze of indifference the investigators found no fault.

A principal could walk out of a school with a piano on his back and not be questioned.But woe to the teacher who absconds with a #2 pencil after an Extended Day nightmare and there will follow an interrogation that the KGB would envy. They will be over his shoulder, in his hair, under his skin and at his throat.

Chancellor Klein clearly feels that teachers are far more prone to corruption than are other folks and can be assumed to put their souls on market for a silk tie and thus must be protected from their impulses. That was the reason that a few years ago, during the holiday season, he ruled that teachers may not accept gifts worth more than 5 dollars. He extended the definition of contraband to include tokens of love, gratitude and cheer that exceeded 5 dollars retail.

The chancellor, unlike the commissioners of police and fire and other agencies, despises his workforce and assumes the worst of them. That is his calling card and that is why a book is missing like a prophet from the stacks at Brooklyn Tech.

Published October 28, 2008