Amagansett School's Exciting Gift Card Theft Conclusion

Well, it’s over. A school district in the Hamptons just spent at least $100,000 in legal fees to determine whether a particular school’s principal was guilty of stealing a $25 Amazon gift card intended for one of the teachers. The investigation took nearly 15 months to complete.

If you call to ask the exact amount spent, nobody will give you the figure. It’s embarrassing. But Amagansett taxpayers are on the hook to pay numerous lawyers and officials, including a New York State Education Department hearing officer who presided at seven different hearings during these months. A commotion of that length and that complexity, including witnesses, evidence and opinions could easily cost six figures, although less if some of the lawyers worked pro bono.

As a result, the one precious thing that stands out here must be, everybody says, the brilliance of the 24-page decision clearing the principal of wrongdoing. In reading it, one can appreciate the hearing officer’s skill. It’s simply tremendous. Right up there with Shakespeare with that price. Worth every dollar.

The event that led to all this began when Maria Dorr, the longtime principal of the Amagansett School, went into the mailroom where the receptionist, that morning, had put a little red envelope into the mail cubby of teacher Christina McElroy. It contained a $25 Amazon gift certificate, a gift from the parents of a student to a teacher whose good works were much appreciated.

Lots of red envelopes that cheery pre-Christmas morning were being handed out to teachers and administrators.

There are 38 surveillance cameras adorning the interior of the Amagansett School, recording activities. But none were in the mailroom.

The camera footage showed that the receptionist went into the mailroom at 8:24.02 a.m. with the red envelope addressed to the teacher. And at 8:37.27 a.m. the principal went into the mailroom and 20 seconds later came out carrying a red envelope. Soon thereafter the receptionist confronted the principal. Had she taken that red envelope intended for someone else? The principal, according to the receptionist, told her not to make a fuss about it because doing so would result in bringing in lawyers to investigate. And that would put a damper on Christmas. It was certainly a small matter.

The receptionist made the fuss anyway. She told various other school officials about the principal and the red envelope, including among others the head of the teacher’s union, also the superintendent of the school. When the school board heard about it, the complaint was filed. And $100,000+ later, it’s over.

Principal Dorr, who was out on paid leave, is back at being principal and all reference to this charge, investigation and decision have been expunged from her record.

In his decision, hearing officer Timothy Taylor noted that at no point was anyone able to prove that the red envelope the principal carried out contained the gift card. It wasn’t seen in the surveillance cameras, and nobody in the mailroom saw the principal reach into McElroy’s cubby.

Indeed, the surveillance camera video shows that the principal, when carrying the red envelope out, made no effort to hide it. Certainly had she stolen it, she could have done so.

In fact, the principal later said her red envelope contained a gift card from the owners of the Shell gas station in town. Later, after the hearings began, she found it in her recycling bin at home and brought it in. That, however, could have been part of a cover-up, the prosecuting lawyers said.

The real genius of this so-very expensive report however, is in the part where the hearing officer wrote that in the melee in the mailroom any number of other people could have walked out with the red envelope containing McElroy’s gift card.

And so, with the receptionist focusing only on what the principal carried out, no other possibilities were considered.

As such, what the receptionist spread was simply a rumor, which nevertheless convinced the head of the teacher’s union to begin an investigation.

Hearing officer Taylor also criticized the receptionist for bringing it to the head of the teacher’s union because the principal does not report to the union. The investigation should have begun with the school district officers.

Also consider that school personnel who came as witnesses to the hearing had high praise for the principal. She’d been the principal for nine years, had won awards and had led the school into winning other awards.

Meanwhile, In his decision, Taylor wrote that the receptionist “quickly spread rumors.” Her credibility in spreading this story just then in the middle of that cheerful Christmas seemed unfortunate, Taylor suggested.

So all is now well at the Amagansett School. And now does everyone have to say that this never happened, not the theft, the accusation or even the hearings since all  has been expunged from the record?

On the other hand, some filmmakers might be interested in this story, now available for free since officially it never happened and therefore there is nobody who could say the story was stolen as the work of somebody else.

Many movies, both fact and fiction, have been filmed in the Hamptons. The murder of Ted Ammon, a Wall Street billionaire bludgeoned to death in his bed on Middle Lane in East Hampton one night is one. The story of Grey Gardens, the broken-down mansion in the Hamptons where a former member of the social set and her daughter — relatives of Jackie Kennedy — lived in squalor for many years has not only been made into a movie, but also a book, a Broadway musical and the start of a fashion trend brought about by Little Edie, the daughter in that case.

Watch for it. A $25 gift certificate. Stolen. What a story.

And also, through to this day, with the existence of that purloined red envelope still undiscovered (insert mysterious music) there’s room for a sequel. $25! A card that could partially or fully pay for thousands, nay millions of items offered up at Amazon.  Good Lord.

I see Glenn Close playing the receptionist, Jennifer Lawrence the principal, and George Clooney starring as the hearing officer.

Any takers?