New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-12-24
CHARGES CONSPIRACY.
Mr. COnnery focuses Board Of
Education Officials.
DR.. MAXWELL MAKES WARM DENIAL.

( DIX. MAXWELL mHhEO wan" S-'N'NS'
! An exceptionally exciting meeting of the
Board of Educa ton took place yesterday. in
which Commissioner Thomas B. Connery at
tackled President Birmingham. City Superin-
tendent Maxwell and other members Of the
Committee on Special Schools. whom he charged
with being engaged in "a dsgraceful con-
spfracy' to GUST Headmaster Alfred T. V.
Brennan of the New-York Truant School, who
was an obstacle to President Burlingham's pet
scheme for reorganization"
The report finally adopted. found Brennan
guilty of having cruelty and inhumanly inflicted
corporal punishment Oscar Lehr and Terence
Reilly, pupils of the Truant School. and In SO
doing having violated the bylaws of the Board.
The report recommended that Brennan be sus-
pended until February 1. 1908 and then be re-
quced to the position of teacher in Grammar
School %
Mr. Connery submitted a minority report he
questioned the jurisdiction of the Committee
which tried Brennan, and stated that there was
no bylaw which prohibited the administering OF
corporal punishment in the Truant schools. He
continued: II consider that Mr.. Brennan's treat
ment by the City Superintendent of Schools (Dr.
MaxwelD, was unnecessarily harsh and singu-
larly unfair Before suspending Mr.. Brennan
the City Superintendent should have given him
a hearing-a chance to make explana-
lions and denialS. NO Such opportunity
was given him. He was suspended on
the statement, the unsworn state
ment. of boys who since have admitted
on the stand that they are habltual liars. To
suspend an able teacher on such suspicious
information is bad enough. but when that sus-
pension is accompanied by gross msrepresenta-
lions by the City Superintendent. describing
the accused in the public press as a monster
of cruelty, who had ventured to beat little boys
with a yardstck studded with nails. he exceeds
his duty most inexcusedly. and lays himself
open to the charge of seeking to prejudice the
minds Of the members of this board. especially
the minds of the members who would be called
upon to try the charges. There was no testi-
mony brought before the trial committee prov
ing this extraordinary charge. The nail COW
cred stick was not even heard of during the
investigation
nv Barrett declared that the reading of testi-
mony was enough to convince any unprecedented
mind that the charges against Brennan had not
been proven. DR.. Maxwell. in answer to a ques-
ton that caused much discussion, asserted that
he had sent his clerk to investigate the charges
against Brennan because Mr.. Yetman, the proper
official. was i'll. The clerk, he said. was thor
oughly competent for the mission. He said that
the statement that the City Superintendent had
suspended Brennan was not founded on fact
authority and could only prefer charges: the
board must then act and suspend He had made
no mention OF a stick" in connection with
Brennan, but said that orderly. not yet tried.
was charged with having used a stick on pupils
MI Connery began by saying that he feared
to make denuncati on OF the men and their
methods interested in the majority report, for
fear OF having II visited the head OF the de-
PENDANT in the action. The case. he said, was
not one OF prosecution but one Of persecution,
and all the evidence bore the earmarks Of hav-
ing been cooked up. He also charged that sew
eraI OF the commissioners who signed the ma
iority report had not heard the testimony
throughout He declared: You'll am speak
ing TO you. Afr. President-you. who the canons
OF honor should have held back: you. who hold
the lofty office OF president Of This board: you,
President Birmingham, who should. by the rights
OF YOUR Office be every teachers friend. came
into that room the last day Of the hearing
and forced the scale OF the balance against
Brennan" Here Commissioner Mack asked the
Chair to allow the commissioner 70 proceed. ION
account Of the excitement under which he was
la boring and his age and gray hairs" Don't
mind my age and gray hairs: can take care OF
myself" the speakers retort The appli-
cation made by Brennan TO be nominated for
the place OF teacher wrung from him by
q brutal threat force him out unless he ac-
cepted the terms OF the City Superintendent"
Mr. O"Brien asked DR.. Maxwell why he told
Brennan that If he did not accept the position
as teacher he would be expelled from the school
system. DR.. Maxwell declared that no such
statement had been made by him, and that
nothing that he had said could be twisted into
such a meaning. What he did say was that
Brennan's license expired on January 3. and
the matter was before the board, he would not
renew ii.
vote was taken and eight members of the
board voted with Mr.. Connery, while twenty
four Of the members sustained the majority re-
port Both Mr.. Stern and Mr.. O'Brien declined
to vote.
After the excitement had subsidized a resolution
was adopted accepting busts of Lincoln by
Wilson Macdonald. to be placed in every public
school in the boroughs of Manhattan and The
Bronx. The busts were offered "by patriotic
gentleman" who desired that his name be with
held from the public.