ATTITUDE WIPED OUT 'SURFER'

Attitude Wiped Out `Surfer'

When veteran school system employee Toquir Choudhri was asked by a supervisor why he used the Internet so frequently, he responded, "Reading."

In the wake of Schools Chancellor Joel Klein's decision to fire Mr. Choudhri, overruling a call for a mere reprimand by an Administrative Law Judge, perhaps he has cause to regret that this reading did not include Albert Camus's "The Stranger." The title character is judged guilty of a murder primarily because he previously had not shown visible grief over the death of his mother.

Mr. Choudhri's lawyer called the firing "viciously shocking" and "a political hatchet job." Whatever truth may lie in such claims, as with Mr. Camus's Mersault, perceptions about Mr. Choudhri's attitude contributed heavily to his downfall.