The Bridgehampton School Board voted unanimously after an executive session last week to mandate another psychiatric evaluation for a popular English teacher who was reassigned to home leave less than a week into the school year in September.
The teacher is Tom House of Springs, who is also the founding president of the nonprofit Hamptons Pride. He underwent such an evaluation in July, about a month after being reassigned to home leave following the death of his brother. The psychiatrist, Dr. Randall Solomon, cleared Mr. House to return to his teaching duties.
According to the Sept. 25 school board resolution, Dr. Solomon is to conduct this second inquiry as well, “in order to evaluate said employee’s ability to perform his duties as an employee of the district,” the measure states.
The resolution did not name Mr. House specifically — it only references an “Employee A” — but Mr. House himself confirmed it in an email to The Star this week.
“The process itself is awful, no matter who is tasked with administering it,” he wrote. “It lasted four hours. I was asked to justify and explain actions that were sometimes entirely fabricated, or the product of hearsay and of interviews with students as young as seventh graders. . . . Now I must submit to it a second time, or again face disciplinary actions that could mean the loss of my livelihood.”
Mary Kelly, superintendent of the school district, said by email this week that she could not comment on the upcoming evaluation or any other circumstances of Mr. House’s reassignment. At the Sept. 25 board meeting, Jennifer Vinski, the school board president, read a statement reinforcing privacy as the reason the district would not be releasing specific details or answering questions.
“During this time the district has taken proactive steps to ensure that all of the students’ learning experiences remain uninterrupted and continue to meet the highest standards,” Ms. Vinski said. “We cannot go into detail as to how, why, or for how long Mr. House will be on a leave of absence. Maintaining the rights and privacy of district staff is of paramount importance.”
When news of his second reassignment broke a few weeks ago, Mr. House was inundated with messages of support from former students and their parents, fellow teachers, and community members.
“The outpouring of support on social media and in the press, or via email and phone calls, are in part from people I haven’t spoken to or seen in years,” he wrote in an email to The Star. “Some have fond memories of acts of kindness I’ve completely forgotten. I think we often don’t know — teachers, especially, don’t know — the lasting impact we have on students and their families, because we’ve had so many of them. . . . I’ve been so lucky these past weeks to hear a lot of the good things my students and their families remember, and it’s so uplifting and humbling.”
The voluminous support was echoed at the Sept. 25 school board meeting itself, when a handful of vocal community members spoke out in support of Mr. House and demanded more transparency from the board.
The Rev. Robert Stuart, pastor emeritus of the Amagansett Presbyterian Church and a personal friend of Mr. House, spoke up to “vouch for his integrity of character.”
“I know him to be mentally fit,” Mr. Stuart said. “He is a leader in the community, respected by teaching colleagues, and an inspiration to many students who have had him as a teacher in his 15 years at the Bridgehampton School.”
“I’ve become concerned about possible injustice in actions taken against him. . . . The swift move to put Mr. House on leave right at the beginning of the school year looks initially to me like an exaggerated response to any precipitating incident. And it raises the question for me, is there a further unstated objective in his removal?” Mr. Stuart asked.
Erica Huberty, whose daughter was excited to have Mr. House as an English teacher this year, and whose son thrived in his classes before graduating from Bridgehampton, said that Mr. House “has helped navigate and support some of the most vulnerable students in this district through some of the most difficult times any of us here can remember.”
He was sensitive to her son Liam’s special needs, encouraged his love of storytelling and reading, and set him up for the success he achieved in college and beyond, Ms. Huberty said. “We don’t know why Mr. House was dismissed and banned from campus, and I know that nobody here is going to tell us why today, but the board should know that we as a family believe that there are no justified reasons for this extreme action. This is a very small school, and a small community. We know each other and we know when something is not right.”