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Amanda Sanjuan was hired as a bilingual education teacher in West New York in 1997, and was appointed assistant principal at Memorial High School in 2019.
One night in February 2020, Sanjuan was attending an event at the high school when she fell down a flight of stairs and landed on the floor, according to court papers.
After hearing a commotion, a teacher and a custodian rushed to the stairs where they saw Sanjuan sitting on the floor and rubbing her thigh. When they briefly left, Sanjuan reached into her purse, removed a piece of paper, stood up, walked half-way up the stairway, placed the piece of paper on one of the stairs, and returned to the bottom of the stairs.
She then returned to sitting on the floor, continued to rub her thigh, checked the back of her head and ankle with her hands, and briefly texted on her cellphone until the custodian returned with water for her, along with the teacher according to court papers.
Sanjuan then pointed out there was paper on the stairs that caused her fall.
The next day, Sanjuan signed off on an illness and injury report saying that she saw the piece of paper on the stairs when she lost her balance and fell. That same day, the high school principal watched the surveillance footage of the fall, which showed her walking up the stairs and placing the paper on the step, court papers say.
Sanjuan was suspended without pay for 150 days in August 2020.
The Superior Court of New Jersey Appellate Division ruled on Aug. 25, 2022 that Sanjuan should be reinstated.
"We affirm the arbitrator's determination that Sanjuan was not entitled to backpay withheld from her during her suspension-without-pay period based upon his determination that her conduct was unbecoming of a teaching staff member," court papers read.
"We reverse and remand because upon determining Sanjuan's conduct was unbecoming but that she should not be terminated, the arbitrator lacked the statutory authority to demote her from her assistant principal position and he could only reduce her salary. Sanjuan should be reinstated to her assistant principal position. On remand, the arbitrator must determine to what extent, if any, Sanjuan's salary should be further reduced through suspending her without pay or withholding salary increments, or a combination thereof."
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