Teacher’s tragic secret

Rare illness before slay

A Bronx teacher who fell on hard times and was murdered at a Harlem homeless shelter last year suffered from a rare brain disease that derailed his career and led him to give thousands of dollars to Internet scammers, according to a medical report Monday.

Deven Black (inset), 62 — a former special-education teacher and librarian whose throat was slit by a fellow shelter resident in January 2016 — was plagued by a nerve disorder that scrambled his personality and caused him to make bad decisions, renowned brain experts said in a report.

“He got sick, but Deven was a good person,” said his sister, Loren Black. “I’m just so angry that this happened to him. And I really wish that we could have figured out how to protect him.”

Scientists discovered microscopic specks of protein on his brain linked to frontotemporal dementia, a nerve disorder that causes impulsive behavior, according to the report by doctors at Columbia University and Massachusetts General Hospital.

Black was nearly decapitated by Anthony White, 21, while staying at Lexington Avenue near 123rd Street. White later killed himself and was found in the Hudson River.

In the months before Black be- came homeless, he started acting strangely.

He was disciplined for allegedly telling a student she looked sexy and began withdrawing from friends. He also sent thousands of dollars to online scammers in Africa — giving away more than $10,000 — and ran into trouble with the law over alleged bank schemes. Experts had previously thought Black was bipolar. But soon after his death, his wife, Jill Rovitsky, called a neurologist from Mass General to investigate.

“I was wrestling with growing suspicions that there was something significantly, organically wrong with him,” Rovitsky said. Doctors concluded Black likely suffered from the brain disorder, which affects more than 50,000 people nationwide.

“When there is a story as compelling as Deven Black’s, in connection with a family history of something that we understand to be linked, then you’ve almost got two smoking guns,” said Brad Dickerson, of Massachusetts General Hospital, who worked on the case with Columbia University neuropathologist Dr. Jean Paul Vonsattel.

Black taught social studies at The Castle Hill Middle School in The Bronx and was honored by the Academy of Education Arts and Sciences.