Jessica Bader, Oyster Bay school principal at East Norwich abruptly resigns months into her new role after its discovered she failed to disclose previous sexual indiscretion with student at another school district years earlier.
An abrupt sudden departure – but why? A former Long Island teacher who resigned after having an ‘inappropriate relationship’ with a student in 2006 was hired as a barista school principal decades later after she lied about her teaching certificates.
Jessica Bader, 51, worked as a teacher in the early 2000s – but resigned after her teaching certificates were suspended for having an ‘inappropriate relationship’ with a student at East Meadow High School in Long Island, where she taught.
The relationship lasted from 2004 to 2005 – through the student’s junior and senior year, according to legal documents cited by Longview News Journal.
Then former teacher defended her sexual relationship with student
Documents revealed that Bader’s relationship with the male student involved ‘physical, intimate and/or sexual contact, improper communications and/or improper correspondence.’
The relationship was exposed by the victim’s mother, after coming across sexual emails between Bader and her son and brought them to the district’s attention.
Bader was never prosecuted criminally because the student was over 18, the legal age of consent and the detective overseeing the case decided that no crime had been committed.
Her defense was based around the consensual nature of her relationship with the student, his age and her experience with postpartum depression after recently giving birth to twins along with decrying the episode as a ‘lapse of judgement.’
According to legal documents, Bader ‘did not seem to find any emotional or psychological harm to the student from her conduct when she was addressing the reasons her interactions with the student was inappropriate.’
Bader maintained that she hadn’t done anything wrong.
‘Her defence appeared to primarily be that the relationship with the student was not inappropriate because it was consensual, that the student was not a minor and that the young man was not a student in her classroom.’
Bader submitted her resignation by letter on 2005 and her teaching certificates were suspended for a period of four years.
Current educational policy forbids teachers having sexual liaison with students irrespective of age because of the authoritative power educators hold over students.
Over 15 years later – Bader applied for a job at Oyster Bay-East Norwich in Long Island, New York.
Educator’s past finally catches up to haunt her
Somehow Bader had been hired by another school district in between her 2006 scandal and her most recent appointment, she worked at George J. Ryan Middle School in Queens for nine years.
When applying for the OBEN job – Bader left out her stint at East Meadow from the paperwork – and when asked if she had ever had her teaching certificate suspended, the educator answered no.
Bader was originally hired in a teaching position, but was promoted to Principal going into the 2023/2024 school year.
‘With the school year having officially begun, students at James H. Vernon School were greeted by someone new when they arrived for the first day of classes,’ an Oyster Bay-East Norwich Central School District announcement said.
Abrupt departure
‘Jessica Bader, the former director of humanities for kindergarten through 12th grade in the Oyster Bay-East Norwich Central School District, welcomed the students as the new principal of Vernon.’
‘Bader had previously worked as an assistant principal at George J. Ryan Middle School 216 in Manhattan for nine years and arrived at OBEN last year to take over the role of director of humanities K-12.’
‘She’s very friendly and very conscientious and very excited which is great; half this job is having the passion for the kids,’ Laurie Kowalsky, president of OBEN’s BOE, said.
Offered Baden at the time of her hiring as principal, Bader, 51, said, ‘she knew she wanted to be a teacher from an early age. She studied at State University of New York Oneonta, where she got her undergraduate degree in secondary education in English, and received two master’s degrees from Queens College, City University of New York, one in educational administration and one in educational supervision.’
The newly hired principal had also engineered initiatives giving fast track to high achieving students, along with overseeing new curriculums.
But something went wrong two months into Baden’s new role as principal. Her past had finally caught up with her.
Just weeks after entering her new role, a statement sent to parents revealed Bader ‘will be away from the building for some time.’
After her abrupt resignation – an investigation revealed the decade-old scandal and members of the OBEN community are left feeling unsettled.
‘They’re supposed to be trusted, responsible individuals. It doesn’t always work out like that so that means the schools really have to do their homework,’ said parent Gloria McCain.
To date it remained unclear what inspired the newly hired principal’s abrupt departure and whether the school district had been covertly informed of their new hire’s former past?
Also not clear is how educational authorities failed in their due diligence in their hiring process. Or whether in fact they had in fact known all along and chose to look past the previous indiscretion?
‘My goal is to make James Vernon a Blue Ribbon school, and the best way to do that is to focus on what matters most — the kids,’ Bader previously explained. ‘The high school’s job is to prepare them for college and their careers, and our job is to prepare them for high school.’
