Female Teachers Allegedly Caught in a Clinch Sue to Get Jobs Back

Over a year ago, the New York City tabloids went crazy over the news that two attractive young female teachers at a high school in Brooklyn were caught by a janitor allegedly making love in an otherwise-empty classroom.

As reported here, the teachers, Cindy Mauro, 33, and Alini Brito, 29, who both taught Romance languages (more puns for tabloid headline writers), were caught in flagrante delicto on Nov. 20, 2009, while the students were occupied with a talent show.

Brito was married (to a man). The school, Madison High School, was labeled "Horny High" after another attractive young female teacher was accused of having sexual relations with a student, this one male.

After the lengthy hearing process mandated by the city's teacher's union, the two women were finally fired a few weeks ago, which has brought the sensational case back into the news.

Now, Cindy Mauro is suing to get her job back. The New York Post reports that Mauro "insists that she was simply helping Brito cope with a low-blood-sugar moment at James Madison HS and that there's no substantial evidence [of] any sexual activity."

Another of the city's tabloids, the Daily News, reported on Jan. 11 that Brito is also suing, calling the arbitrator's report "a raunchy piece of fiction that relied on claims from witnesses with very vivid imaginations."

"A fish turned into a whale because of the nature of these allegations," is how her lawyer, Michael Valentine, termed the report. "Overblown, this is overblown!"

Mauro called the dismissal by the city's Board of Education "arbitrary and capricious," but an arbiter earlier found the claim that the intimate moment was caused by Brito's diabetic condition to be "devoid of credibility."

According to news reports of the hearing, Mauro is alleged to have told Brito, who does have diabetes, "I have sugar and candy in my room." The school's students were in assembly, attending a song-and-dance competition.

Brito was actually getting candy and sugar from Mauro to treat her medical condition, Valentine told the Daily News. "She denies to this day that she was in any state of undress," he said. "There were no shenanigans."

Gossip website Gawker fanned the tabloid flames when it reported that a Facebook page from some of the school's students alleged that "apparently Ms.Brito was caught eating out Ms.Mauro (or vice versa) during friday at S.I.N.G and a security guard caught them." There's another Facebook page, this one cheekily titled "We Want Justice (and pics) for Alini Brito and Cindy Mauro."

Understandably, both women are claiming that the firing has made them objects of "ridicule and notoriety." After the accusations were made, the women became the punchline of late-night comics as well as the subject of breathless tabloid stories and suggestive Internet stories.