Jail for Ex-AP, 3 Face Firing In Sex Scandals

By HOWARD MEGDAL

A former Assistant Principal who traded images of child pornography and propositioned online two undercover officers posing as 13-year-old girls was sentenced to 10 years in prison last week in U.S. Federal Court in White Plains.

Steven Mark Rubinstein, who had served as an AP at Murry Bergtraum High School, engaged in sexually explicit conversations with the officers from his work station as well as his home in Poughkeepsie. Images seized from his home computer included child pornography.

Teacher Cited in Report

Meanwhile, the Special Commissioner of Investigation has alleged that a Teacher at A. Philip Randolph High School in Manhattan had an inappropriate relationship with a pair of students, while the Principal at the school covered it up.

Teacher Johnny Cuevas, 37, while under investigation for taking a trip with an 18-year-old student to the Dominican Republic, allegedly began a relationship with a 16-year-old student over the Internet.

Principal Maurice Collins contradicted himself in statements to investigators about whether he knew of Mr. Cuevas's actions. SCI Richard J. Condon recommended that both men be fired. A spokesman for DOE said both have been reassigned pending the investigation. DOE is also moving to fire Assistant Principal Ingrid Buntschuh for allegedly being evasive about what Mr. Collins said about the situation during a meeting with her and three other APs back in January. Mr. Condon sent the report to the Office of Legal Services and the State Education Department for review.