to fire a tenured teacher not only in new york city, but across the united states. and i think that this example is just an extreme example of what should make parents really upset about it is if the new york city school system can't fire a teacher like this, what are they doing about teachers who just aren't doing a very good job educating their students? the answer is not very much. it's just remarkably difficult to fire a teacher for any reason. >> gretchen: these so-called rubber rooms that used to exist, when teachers would have things filed against them, like in this case, a sexual harassment charge, they couldn't be fired because of tenure. so they would go to these so-called rubber rooms where they sit around and do nothing and still collect pay. now the mayor and the city have gotten rid of those rooms. it's my understanding that the teach service doing data entry, answering phones, and paperwork. but he's racked up a million dollars. my question is, why was it so easy for him to get tenure when he was only a substitute teacher and a teacher for a very short period of time? >> unfortunately, it's too easy