Another former Babylon Junior-Senior High School educator loses teaching certificate

A former Babylon teacher surrendered his state certificate last week, making him the fourth educator from Babylon Junior-Senior High School to lose teaching privileges in New York since the fall of 2021, when former students made a spate of sexual misconduct allegations against their teachers and coaches.

Andrew Marulis, 49, of Davenport, Florida, agreed to forfeit his teaching certificate, according to a July 9 agreement he signed with the state Education Department. A former business teacher, Marulis “permanently waives his right to apply for any teaching, coaching, administrative or other school related certification at any future date,” according to the agreement.

The state Education Department, citing privacy laws, declined to say what compelled Marulis to hand over his license, which took effect in 2008, and why he did so now.

Marulis' name surfaced publicly in 2021, when former student Brittany Rohl accused him of grooming her for a relationship that she said became sexual after she turned 18. Rohl said Marulis was her track coach starting in 2010, when she was 16. In her senior year, she enrolled in his entrepreneurship class.

Marulis, in an email to Newsday on Tuesday, denied that he groomed her or had a relationship with her. He has not been charged with any criminal behavior. Marulis also wrote in an email that he couldn’t attend a state Education Department hearing “to explain or defend these allegations” and surrendered his license. "I am peacefully moving on with life," he wrote.

Rohl was the first Babylon alumna to come forward with accusations against a teacher. She and other alumnae alleged misconduct against nearly a dozen teachers during an emotional school board meeting in November 2021. Soon after the meeting, the state attorney  general’s office launched an investigation. The following spring, Timothy Harrison, a special education teacher, was arrested on rape charges.

The attorney general’s investigation is ongoing, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Marulis taught at the high school for 11 years beginning in 2007, according to the district. He was let go in 2018 when his position was eliminated. 

Marulis is certified to teach in Florida. The Florida Department of Education issued him a five-year certificate in business education that became effective last July. Marulis said in an email Wednesday that he applied for but "never used" the Florida certificate. He said he has not taught since leaving Babylon and does not plan to work in education. 

In emails to Newsday earlier this week, Marulis said, "I deny the grooming and relationship allegations." He provided the last email Rohl sent him in 2017, about running a marathon and attending graduate school. "The communication of achievements and support are inconsistent to allegations," he wrote.

Rohl, 30, of Staten Island, stood by her account after hearing Marulis' denial of her allegations. “What I experienced was very real and very traumatic,” she said in an interview. 

Rohl said she spoke about Marulis with an investigator from the state Education Department’s Office of School Personnel Review and Accountability in February. She said she was prepared to testify at a hearing. Last week, she was informed of Marulis' decision to surrender his license and received a letter of confirmation Monday from Samuel J. Finnessey Jr., director and assistant counsel of the state Education Department’s Office of School Personnel Review and Accountability.

“I’m relieved and surprised because I think I’ve become disillusioned with the system,” Rohl said.

Years for state to act

Typically, it takes years for the state Education Department to take action on an educator’s license. A Newsday review of 20 cases since 2019 found it took the state an average of nearly three years — and, in one case, more than eight years — to act.

Revocation not only takes a long time but also is rare.

In the 12 years leading up to 2022, the state revoked 43 Long Island educators’ licenses, some after they were convicted of felonies, and compelled another 61 to surrender theirs rather than face a hearing. That averages fewer than 10 a year when Long Island schools employ about 35,000 full-time classroom teachers in 124 public school districts and six public charter schools.

A spokesman for the state Education Department on Monday declined to respond to Newsday’s questions as to what compelled the department to seek an agreement with Marulis. The state also would not say when Marulis got on their radar.

After Rohl shared her allegations against Marulis in a letter to school officials in 2021, then-Superintendent Linda Rozzi filed a Part 83 report to the state Education Department, as superintendents are required to do by state law when teachers are alleged to have committed “an act that raises a reasonable question about the individual's moral character.”

That was the second time Rozzi had filed such a complaint against Marulis.

A few years earlier, in 2017, Marulis was reassigned to home and banned from school property pending an investigation into an allegation that occurred “while supervising an off-site field trip,” according to district records Newsday obtained through Freedom of Information Law requests.

Rozzi’s report, which was heavily redacted, said “a district-led investigation by attorneys and district failed to prove harmful intent” and Marulis was allowed to return to the classroom “pending he attend a series of mental health counseling sessions.” Marulis said to Newsday by email this week: "I made a mistake in judgment as an off-site chaperone and administration handled per procedure."

A year later, in 2018, the school board abolished a business teacher position and Marulis was “excessed” as the least senior person on staff.

Other teachers disciplined

Action has been taken against other teachers as a result of the misconduct allegations.

Last year, Harrison, the special education teacher, was sentenced to three years' probation after he pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child. He surrendered his teaching license as part of the plea agreement.

Before Harrison, teachers Jeffrey Kenney and Barry Goldsholle, who surrendered their licenses in November 2021. Kenney, a science teacher, resigned and agreed to not seek employment in any school anywhere in the country. Goldsholle, a special education teacher, retired in 2018.

The district in 2021 hired Chris Powers, an attorney with Hauppauge law firm Ingerman Smith LLP, to investigate misconduct allegations leveled by former students. That investigation concluded last year, but the district declined to comment further, citing privacy laws. 

Carisa Manza, superintendent of Babylon schools, said in a statement emailed through a spokesman Monday that the district has taken steps to “ensure that the abhorrent behavior alleged to have taken place in our schools in the past can never occur again.”

She listed a partnership and regular staff training with the Ronkonkoma-based Crime Victims Center; a new student-staff fraternization policy; the introduction of a reporting app on the district website; and the establishment of a citizens advisory committee.

“As part of the District's initiatives to ensure student safety, all student-staff interaction is routinely monitored across all schools,” Manza wrote.

The Babylon district did not face any lawsuits under the state's Child Victims Act, which allowed childhood survivors of alleged sexual abuse a temporary window to file a lawsuit for damages. 

Rohl said publicly sharing her story has taken a toll and there were times she regretted it. But she kept thinking of the future generations of students.

“Change is such an uphill battle,” she said. “Students 20, 30 years from now — that’s what keeps me going — because they can’t say they don’t know anymore. I’m drawing a line in the sand.”