Tragedy Follows A Year Of Fighting For Job

  

   

Brian Mascio Sr., 45, died suddenly last Monday. He is shown with wife Kelly Mascio, and sons Joseph, 9, and Brian, 13. Kelly Mascio said she couldn't have gotten through last year without him, as the Mullica Township Board of Education tried to fire her after two kindergarteners said they engaged in sexual play in her classroom bathroom.

Posted: Sunday, February 1, 2015 1:30 pm

By MICHELLE B. POST, Staff Writer

MULLICA TOWNSHIP — Last year was about as stressful as it could get for tenured Mullica Township Elementary School kindergarten teacher Kelly Mascio, when the school board tried to fire her after two five-year-olds said they had engaged in sexual play in her classroom bathroom.

But now she is facing something even more difficult. Her husband of 15 years, Brian Mascio Sr., 45, died suddenly last Monday while playing with their son Joseph, 9, in their home. Kelly Mascio was in another room helping their other son Brian, 13, with homework.

She said it was a normal evening when Brian Mascio Sr. suddenly fell.

“I heard my younger son say, ‘Daddy, Daddy, get up!’“ she said. Then, “‘Daddy’s messing with me! He won’t get up.’“

When their older son went in the room, he came back and asked for help. That’s when she knew there was something wrong.

Mascio, 44, said the family won’t know for a while the exact cause of death.

“We led such quiet, normal, middle-class lives, then to have so much happen in a year,” said Mascio. “I keep feeling like this isn’t happening, it can’t be real.”

She said her husband had been very angry over how she had been treated by the Mullica Township Board of Education and former Superintendent Brenda Harring-Marro. He was especially upset that no one on the board ever apologized to Kelly Mascio for what she went through for almost the entire 2013-2014 school year.

The board and Harring-Marro moved to take away her tenure and fire her after she failed to notice that two kindergarten students had entered a bathroom together in September 2013. They came out and said they had engaged in sexual play, and she reported it immediately.

But rather than issue a reprimand or other censure, the board took Harring-Marro’s recommendation to try to fire Mascio. It took until June of 2014 for the case to be decided by state Arbitrator Daniel F. Brent. He ruled Mascio should not lose her job, and instead was entitled to almost all of her back pay lost to unpaid suspension.

He also found that she was culpable for failure to supervise students for a short time, and issued a 10-day suspension as punishment.

Harring-Marro left the district soon after the arbitrator’s decision. She was hired as principal of Atco Elementary in Waterford Township, Camden County.

The case split the small rural community, and a large faction of teachers, parents and others supported Mascio, saying she should not lose her job over one small infraction.

Mascio returned to teaching kindergarten this year, and she and her husband were planning a big family trip to Ireland and Scotland. That’s where they honeymooned 15 years ago, and they hadn’t been back since.

 “I couldn’t imagine having gone through everything this past year without him being there,” said Mascio. “This was going to be our nice, uneventful, quiet year. We were going to enjoy it. Now we won’t be able to.”

But she said the amazing support system that helped her get through last year’s attempt to fire her is coming through for her again now.

“They continue to be a Godsend,” she said of her friends, family and coworkers in Mullica. “It has never stopped.”

IF YOU GO:

A viewing for Brian Mascio Sr. will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Monday at St. Mary of Mt. Carmel Parish Church of St. Joseph's, 226 French Street in Hammonton. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 12:30 p.m. Burial will be private. Donations may be sent to an Educational Trust Fund for Brian and Joseph Mascio c/o Roxanne Andronico, 546 S. Third Street, Hammonton, NJ 08037. Visit carnesalefuneralhome.com/.

Contact Michelle Brunetti Post:

609-272-7219

MPost@pressofac.com

@MichelleBPost on Twitter

Related Post
http://gadfly01.blogspot.com/2015/01/brian-masciosr-rip.html

The last year of stress that this family has endured is documented

below on the link of the original story dated 2/22/14 that started the press and TV coverage of the Kelly Mascio Case.
There are over 65 articles linked under this post with comments under each one. 
http://gadfly01.blogspot.com/2014/02/tenure-charges-filed-against-mullica.html