A fired Atlantic City teacher scored a courtroom victory Wednesday, after more than nine years, two trials and an appeal.
Phillip Eisenstein was awarded $183,410, following a jury trial in Atlantic County Civil Court, where he claimed protection as a whistleblower under the Conscientious Employee Protection Act.
The monetary award included lost wages along with $100,000 for emotional distress. The judge did not give punitive damages.
Eisenstein has long contended he was fired from his job at New York Avenue School for questioning how an issue disciplining a student was handled.
A 2023 trial ended when the district’s attorney successfully argued that Eisenstein failed to name a law, statute, rule, regulation or public policy on which to base his claim as required.
But an appellate panel overturned the trial court’s decision, finding that Eisenstein “identified a clear mandate of public policy (public school safety) that he reasonably believed had been violated.”
It all started Oct. 14, 2015, while Eisenstein was working lunch duty and saw an altercation between two students on the playground.
After Eisenstein stepped in, the student being bullied said, "I'm going to go get my uncle's gun and I'm going to come and shoot you tomorrow."
Eisenstein told the student, identified only as K.D., that he would have to report it to the principal at the time, James Knox, “for the safety (of) everybody involved.”
But the next day, the student was back in school.
Eisenstein questioned...
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