Teach's 'rubber' bullets

Booted before gun rap

The former Stuyvesant HS teacher charged with arms trafficking spent more than a year in a "rubber room" for bad behavior -- but somehow bounced back to become dean of a Brooklyn high school, The Post has learned.

Theophilus Burroughs, who is being held without bail after pleading not guilty to an 84-count indictment yesterday, began the first of two disciplinary stints in September 2007 for reasons the Department of Education could not explain.

"He didn't mix with fellow roomers," a source said of Burroughs, 49.

Once freed, Burroughs landed a job as dean of the Cobble Hill School for American Studies, "where he did not make friends," the source said.

In February 2009, Burroughs was once again shipped off to a rubber room, this time for using "vulgar language" with a student, a department spokeswoman said.

He went on unpaid leave in September, but it took administrators another nine months to bring official charges and moved to give him the ax.

By then, he was allegedly a full-blown arms dealer.

"He expressed his desire for the weapons to be shipped to agents in Hamas," ADA Graham Van Epps said told a Bronx judge, citing Burrough's belief guns he sold to informants were being sent to Middle East terrorist groups.

Burroughs was first caught up in the DA's sting operation Aug. 17, 2009, looking to buy untaxed cigarettes at a warehouse run by city and state tax agents, according to an indictment unsealed yesterday.

About five weeks later -- on his eighth visit -- Burroughs offered two guns for sale. On Oct. 20, he sold a semiautomatic Walther P99 pistol to confidential informants and was given an $800 credit toward cigarettes, court papers said.

Between that day and May 19, Burroughs arranged the sale of a dozen weapons -- including two Norinco SKS assault rifles, an AK-47 assault rifle, one Hi Point .45-caliber pistol, two Smith and Wesson pistols and two magazine rounds, the documents claim.

On March 10, Burroughs gave "a price list for firearms that [he] could obtain" and, on June 16, he "received approximately $1,500 as a down payment for a future sale of firearms," court papers state.

Aside from gunrunning, Burroughs purchased more than $1 million worth of untaxed cigarettes during 61 visits to the warehouse between Aug. 17, 2009, and July 20, court documents show.

Burroughs faces up to 25 years in jail if found guilty of firearm sales, tax evasion, conspiracy and money laundering.

Burrough's lawyer, Michael D'Ambrosio, insisted, "Most of the rhetoric used in court was meant to inflame."