From Our Darwin Files: The Unkindest Cut?

An Albany, New York teacher has been suspended from his job for allegedly giving a 10-year-old student a wedgie last summer:

A teacher at the New Covenant Charter School who is accused of yanking up a 10-year-old student's underwear and giving him a wedgie is facing a misdemeanor charge.

Mark Holley, 41, of Scotia, was arrested Monday and charged with endangering the welfare of a child by Albany police detectives, said Detective James Miller, a department spokesman. The detectives investigated a complaint filed by the boy's mother in January, he said.

Holley allegedly pulled the back of the boy's underwear upward in the school locker room last summer. Police say the incident took place during a summer swimming program at the elementary school.

New Covenant officials could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.

A local television station is reporting (with video) that Holley has been placed on administrative leave from his post. That same source indicates that the child's mother filed a report soon after the alleged incident, but that the school chose not to act on the matter until January.

Why did it take the school so long to investigate the allegation?

To put this whole episode in Darwinian terms, I guess that it could be said that when a teacher throws away is suspended from his or her job for pulling a childish stunt such as this that it could be said to be "the unkindest cut of them all." -------------------------------------See our latest education-related entries right here.