Homophobia

Now the teacher that assaulted me had already been quite hostile toward me for some while.
e.g. He refused to acknowledge my greetings.
Refused to answer any of my questions
Turned away if I tried to speak to him.
Spoke of me in the third person in my presence.

After all, he felt that it was I who took away the funds that were allocated for his computers and other supplies. (Never mind that it was I who had brought numerous complaints about Kevin McCormack’s misallocation of student funds) He was convinced that somehow I had gotten his funds for MY students.

Further, the computers that had been taken from my computer lab and placed into his classroom kept having problems. Students, for example, had set up little programs that played obscene sounds whenever certain keys were touched. The students were not properly supervised at the computers and they kept needing repairs – most of these repairs were done by me on my own time.

He accused me of giving him my broken computers, even though it was Beverley Kolstein at the District Office who decided what computers were to be taken from my computer lab to make up for the computers that never appeared thanks to Kevin McCormack’s knack of redirecting money meant to go to the students into his own projects, such as refurbishing his office or getting new executive chairs for all the people assigned to out-of-classroom positions under his watch.

But what really sent Michael Hicks over the top – besides the illegal steroids he had been using to “bulk up” - was the great humiliation I caused him at a social gathering I did not even attend.

There was a staff party just before spring break in 1996. Apparently Mr. Hicks was intoxicated. He began making passes at a young teacher, Deidre Mc Gowan. She gingerly fended him off several times. Finally, he screamed at her: “Oh, I forgot you are one of Mr. Hayes’ Bi**ches!”
Many of the women nearby started to laugh at him. And the more he asked them why they were laughing the more they cracked up and would not tell him. Finally, one woman said to him: “Michael, don’t you know Mr. Hayes is Gay?”

The women started laughing at him again. He assumed that because I was supportive of younger teachers, I was doing it to have my way with them!

After, vacation he began stalking and harassing me. When he began using his students to yell at me, I went to the administration. Kevin McCormack did nothing even though getting students involved in bickering violated school policy.

A group of African-American men also complained to Mr. McCormack that Michael Hicks had been referring to me as “Mr. Hayes… that white fa**ot.” He assumed that other black men would not find his racist homophobic comments insulting.

During the first assault in April, Michael Hicks kept silently mouthing the word “Fa**ott” over and over.

Eric Scapetta, the ADA at Robert Morgenthau’s Office refused to consider the possibility that my assaults were hate crimes after Kevin McCormack had poisoned the waters and accused me of being the one who was racially motivated.