Fourth Grade Fight Club

Need another reason to home school your children? Well, have a look at what went on in a Queens, NY, elementary school. Naturally the "teacher" who presided over this atrocity can't be fired because of his cushy union protection. He may need a lot more than union protection once this story circulates.

The first rule of fourth grade - no talking about fight club.

A Queens teacher turned his classroom into a boxing arena for two feuding students, telling the boys to settle their beef with their fists as their stunned classmates watched the bizarre spectacle, authorities said yesterday.

And to make sure no one found out his twisted teaching technique, the instructor, Joseph Gullotta, 29, allegedly supplied the kids with excuses for the nurse to explain away any injuries.

In one corner was a 10-year-old. His opponent was a year younger. The Post is withholding the kids' names.

Before beginning the match at the impromptu fight club at PS 65 in Ozone Park, Gullotta instructed a girl to close the classroom door. He ordered the rest of his pupils to back up and make way for the battle, Queens DA Richard Brown said.

The two combatants came out swinging and then began wrestling.

During the bout, the older boy's head rammed into the younger one's mouth. The younger boy suffered a cut lip; the older one, a bruised head.

"When two fourth-graders became involved in a verbal dispute, their teacher allegedly told one of the students that he should 'take it out' on another student," Brown said.

"When parents send their children off to school, their teachers have an obligation to provide a safe environment for them."

Teacher's aide Abraham Fox, 43, was in the classroom during the clash, but did nothing to break it up, the DA charged.

Neither student was offered a visit to the school nurse, despite Fox's observation that the 9-year-old might need stitches, Brown said.

Then out came the schoolbooks for two periods of more traditional instruction before Gullotta finally allowed the younger boy to visit the nurse.

These two were actually charged with crimes but not yet dismissed.

Gullotta and Fox were charged with two counts each of acting in a manner injurious to a child under 17 and could face up to a year in jail if convicted.

Fox was suspended without pay; Gullotta was reassigned to a rubber room.

People answering the door at the Long Island homes of Fox and Gullotta declined to comment.

You can have one outrage after another at these NYC public schools and despite repeated failures the unions and others go out of their ways to keep the status quo.

You'd think the NAACP would be leading a fight for better schools for these kids. Instead, it's teamed up with the teachers -- at the students' expense. It claims the closures discriminate against minority and special-needs kids.

Only the NAACP knows its true reasons for joining the suit, but perhaps UFT payments it got over the years had something to do with it: In its latest US Labor Department filing, for instance, the union reported funneling some $15,000 to the NAACP through July 31, 2009.

It's heartbreaking that so many minority and other kids have endured such abysmal schools for so long -- and sad indeed to see a group like the NAACP join a move to keep them there.

Yet anyone who complains is called racist.