NORHTAMPTON — The Northampton schools chief said Thursday that the district will resume its internal investigation of an incident that led to a JFK Middle School teacher pleading guilty this week to accosting a female colleague.
In Northampton District Court on Wednesday, Herschel M. Levine, 33, of Northampton, pleaded guilty to accosting/annoying another individual. Additionally, an assault and battery charge was continued without a finding for two years. That charge was reduced from indecent assault and battery on a person 14 or older.
Levine, who remains on paid administrative leave, was also sentenced to serve two years probation, under the conditions that he not work as a teacher and continue to seek counseling, among others, court records show. He began working as a substitute teacher in Northampton in 2010 and was brought on as a regular staff member in 2011, according to city payroll data.
“Now that (the criminal matter) has been resolved, the district will look into the new allegations that were included in the criminal matter,” Superintendent John Provost said Thursday. “We’re reviewing the documents produced (in court) to see if there are new individuals who need to be interviewed.”
The woman, who Provost confirmed is no longer an employee within the district, told police that Levine first approached her when the two were at the World War II Club in Northampton the night of Nov. 13, 2015, according to the report. There, the woman told police, Levine asked her multiple times if she would have sex with him, court records indicate. She refused.
One week later, according to a police report, the woman felt ill and wandered into Levine’s classroom where there were no students present. At that point, Levine asked if she would assist him in removing papers from a classroom closet. Again, Levine propositioned the woman for sex, police said, which she refused.
Levine asked if she, instead, would watch him masturbate, to which she said no. He told her it was something he did in the classroom regularly, according to the report, and that he did so in a tall cabinet near the entrance of the classroom and at least one other location.
As she walked out of the classroom, the woman told police, Levine followed closely behind and pressed his clothed erection into her backside as he made gyrating motions, according to the report.
The woman in the case reported the incidents to Northampton police in December 2015 as a last resort, the report says, because she did not think the school was taking her account seriously.
District officials said in May, after Levine’s arraignment, that they would resume the school’s internal investigation into the matter after the criminal matter was resolved and that it wasn’t aware of some of the allegations until the teacher filed her report to authorities.
In a meeting with JFK school officials, the staff member had previously reported some, but not all, of what Levine allegedly did to her last fall, because she was still in “shock and disbelief,” according to the report.
“Based on a review of all the evidence, including negative DNA testing, Mr. Levine, a well respected art teacher, accepts reduced charges and is eager to move forward after this agreement,” defense counsel Jesse Adams said in an email.
Michael Majchrowicz can be reached at mmajchrowicz@gazettenet.com.