He’s the Jeffrey Toobin of Big Apple schools.
Robert Torres, a teacher at Tottenville High School in Staten Island, masturbated while on camera in a Google Meet, shocking a fellow educator who witnessed it, the city’s Special Commissioner of Investigation found.
A video showed Torres, 48, “with his pants down, conducting masturbatory activity,” according to a just-released report by the city schools investigator.
The disturbing behavior, which the report says occurred on Nov. 3, 2020, was one of the most bizarre incidents to occur during the COVID-19 pandemic, when schools were closed and instruction took place online.
Torres was remotely co-teaching a class with about 15 students.
After the teens were dismissed, the two teachers were required to stay online for another 30 minutes in case any students logged back on with questions.
One teacher then noticed Torres “had his pants down and appeared to be masturbating,” the SCI report says.
The fellow teacher was “shocked,” and “instinctively recorded the incident on his cellphone,” it says.
The video was given to police, but the NYPD closed the case after determining that no students witnessed the act, the SCI says. No criminal charges were filed.
Torres, whose last salary was $128,451, refused to be interviewed by the SCI, and “offered no rebuttal to the allegation,” the report says.
He did not return a request for comment to his city Department of Education email address.
“Behavior such as this is outrageous and totally unacceptable,” said DOE spokeswoman Jenna Lyle.
Torres “was disciplined based on a determination by an impartial arbitrator,” Lyle said. She would not specify the discipline, which can include a letter in the file, fine or suspension.
Torres is currently listed on a DOE website as a teacher and dean at Port Richmond HS.
Toobin, a CNN legal analyst and New Yorker writer, was famously seen masturbating during a Zoom call with colleagues in October 2020.
The New Yorker fired him, but CNN gave him a leave of absence and brought him back on the air last March.
“It was a disaster — and something I will regret for the rest of my life,” Toobin told Mediaite in 2023. “I have no excuses. I have only apologies.”
