I decided to re-post my articles about the "investigators" published in 2009 and 2010, because I think I gave a pretty good summary of the writing then available about Richard Condon and his Agency, the Special Commissioner of Investigation.
All the "well-known" political 'friends' in the world will never, I mean not ever, convince me that Dickie (that's what Rose Gill Hearn called him) and his people are independent of the New York City Department of Education, or fair.
The receptionist at the office of the Special Commissioner of Investigations, Richard Condon. Condon's staff takes up almost the entire 20th floor at 80 Maiden Lane in Manhattan.
Winning Your 3020-a: the Investigators
From the desk of Betsy Combier:
The information below is posted as part of a series on the 3020-a process collected by me over five years which I hope that teachers and school personnel who work in the New York City public school system will find helpful. I write to expose wrong-doing wherever it occurs in order to hold those people who harm others accountable for his/her actions. Why? To stop dishonesty, fraud, corruption, and deliberate and malicious acts that destroy innocent lives. To those who are guilty: you should accept reasonable punishment, then move on. You are the only person who knows all the facts.
As a teacher advocate I have a single goal: to help every person obtain a just/fair resolution to his/her case based upon the evidence and circumstances. Thus every case is unique, and finding justice involves putting many pieces together, such as: who said what to whom, when, where, and why; and what documentation is there that is relevant to the goal that is sought?
The most important part of any investigation is the information gathered to prove/disprove the charge(s), how this information is retrieved, and who says what. If you are the charged person, get to work right now on your investigation/fact gathering for your defense. Call your UFT borough office and get your personnel file, copy what you dont have...because when you start your 3020-a, your commendations and "S" ratings may be missing.
It is simply not true that any OSI or SCI "investigator" is fair and independent. This is an urban myth. If you want to see an amazingly clear example of this, read my article on Glenn Storman, and especially the Report of District Magistrate Judge Andrew Peck. Another Judge who sees the bias in the NYC BOE 3020-a process is New York State Supreme Court Judge Alice Schlesinger, who wrote an interesting decision against Arbitrator Howard Edelman and in favor of teacher Teddy Smith.
What is investigative journalism? On Wikipedia's site is posted the following"
Investigative journalism requires the scrutiny of details, fact-finding, and physical effort. An investigative journalist must have an analytical and incisive mind with strong self-motivation to carry on when all doors are closed, when facts are being covered up or falsified and so on. You must be able to think on your feet.
Some of the means reporters can use for their fact-finding:
*studying neglected sources, such as archives, phone records, address books, tax *records and license records
*talking to neighbors
*using subscription research sources such as LexisNexis, Westlaw (especially for PERB decisions)
*anonymous sources (for example whistleblowers)
*going undercover
Investigative journalism can be contrasted with analytical reporting. According to De Burgh (Investigative Journalism: Context and Practice, Hugo de Burgh (ed), Routledge, London and New York, 2000) analytical journalism takes the data available and reconfigures it, helping us to ask questions about the situation or statement or see it in a different way, whereas investigative journalists go further and also want to know whether the situation presented to us is the reality.
As you can imagine, this involves time and effort. The New York City Board of Education has neither the time nor the desire to put any effort into finding out [1] whether or not the removal of a person from his/her school is a threat to the budget, current political mandates or educational policies; [2] and/or the allegations of wrongdoing are actually based upon facts and reality. Most often the removal of a good or excellent teacher or school employee (not at the Assistant Principal or Principal level)is a result of a Principal wanting to "look good" to the Powers Higher Up, who in turn want Principals and APs to get rid of an outspoken person. This unfortunate soul may have a conscience and cannot stand by while some education/federal/state/city law is being violated in the school or, is simply not able to be "controlled" and may be a danger in the future to the continuation of secret wrongs being done by school administrators. Tenured teachers have everything to worry about in the current NYC BOE, because the subagencies of the BOE, namely Special Commissioner of Investigation and the Office of Investigations are not paid to do investigations, but are paid to prove a school employee guilty of whatever charges have been preferred by the Teacher Performance Unit (the TPU). If you are an "at will" non-tenured employee, your fate will be to be discontinued/terminated for trumped-up charges or for no reasons at all, and your options to fight this are few, due to New York State Employment Laws. Read my articles on "Investigating the Investigators" as well as on the Gotcha Squad to get an overall view of how the so-called "investigators" working for the NYC BOE have joined up with the ATU and the Corporation Counsel to retaliate against anyone who dares to fight them.
Since 2002 when Mike Bloomberg took office, the New York City Board of Education has violated the rights of teachers,counselors and staff to due process, fair hearings and just decisions in cases brought to 3020-A proceedings by alleging crimes of verbal or corporal punishment and/or incompetence without any investigation. One of the first witnesses brought in to testify against a tenured teacher at a 3020-a hearing is an "investigator" from either the Special Commissioner of Investigation (SCI office at 80 Maiden Lane in Manhattan, or from the Office of Special Investigations at 65 Court Street in Brooklyn. Sometimes the "investigator" is from another NYC BOE subagency, the Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO) now run under the ineffective leadership of Mecca Santana. Not one of these NYC BOE agencies are independent of the NYC BOE, and all the salaries of all employees in these agencies are 100% paid by the NYC Education Admin., just like Joel Klein, Michael Best, the Deputy Chancellors, etc. Go to my article ""News To Use", then click "SeeThroughNY", then "Payrolls", "City of New York"; keep the Branch/Major Category as "New York City", put into box two "Agency/Area, "Education Admin, Department", then in the boxes below type in the last name and the first name of the "investigator" who interviewed you. When you put in the name Condon, Richard this is what you get:
Last, First Agency Pay Basis Rate
Condon, Richard Education Admin, Department of Annual $179,168
Below are a few of the teachers who have been targetted by the NYC BOE "investigators" and have been successful in proving to their investigators that there is no investigation going on as defined above by wikipedia or in any other form. You should use this information at your 3020-a, if an OSI or SCI "investigator" is scheduled to testify against you. These "investigators" are part of the process of getting a teacher terminated, and sometimes testify to this. I call their attitude the "arrogance of immunity" - they have become arrogant about how often they have been successful at punishing the innocent or guilty, without doing any investigation and knowing or caring about the facts or evidence surrounding the matter. Below are some of the stories I have posted on my website about this process of finding a person guilty before he/she can prove his/her innocence:
Retaliation Against All Whistleblowers is the Name of the Illegal Game in New York City(7/24/2005)
David Pakter, a NYC Teacher and Whistleblower of the NYC Board of Education's Corrupt Practices, Sues in Federal Court
Editorial: The New York City Department of Education is a Sham and Mike Bloomberg is the Flim-Flam Man
Two Reports, "Investigating The Investigators", and 'The Gill Commission Report' (1990) Dont Improve New York City Public Schools
New York City Teacher Theodore "Teddy" Smith and the Perfect Storm of Injustice
There can be no just end to any procedure if there are no relevant and documented facts upon which to base the resolution reached.
When you are given the form letter with your "probable cause" that lists your crimes, this is your call to action. Remember that the probable cause letter is a form pulled off of a shelf at the Administrative Trials Unit by an Attorney assigned to find something bad about you in order to get you terminated at the 3020-a. The late-night letter sent by Darlene Miller, Principal of the Museum School, to Teddy Smith (the teacher who supposedly threatened to 'kill' his 3020-a arbitrator Jack Tillem)stating that she had found probable cause for the charges - of threatening the arbitrator - without ever speaking with him or asking him whether or not the charges were true. In fact, at Teddy's new 3020-a hearing a few days ago, SCI "investigator" Michael Humphries (who, I found out, is paid $55,000/year by the NYC BOE) testified that in the Condon report it said Teddy was not credible when he (Teddy) denied threatening Tillem, but no one ever asked Teddy whether or not this was true. Humphries added, "but we were going to ask him..." In the Condon report, p. 12 under Conclusion and Recommendations, it says that the Attorney's accounts of Smith's threats were "entirely credible" while "Smith's denials are the complete opposite". Yet no one, at any time, asked Teddy if he had said anything threatening to anyone.
Elizabeth Green wrote about hiding investigations and getting 600 pages pursuant to a FOIL request. What is interesting is that Elizabeth Green obviously has not looked into the difference between these two NYC BOE subagencies, (and will not ask me or anyone else she doesnt like, for this information). SCI is supposed to handle - but again, only those cases not politically connected - issues of sexual misconduct and financial misappropriations; OSI creates charges out of allegations of corporal punishment and discrimination. Michael Kondos of OSI told me that OSI never investigates verbal abuse of any kind.
The Principal, therefore, both writes the allegations of verbal abuse AND investigates the truth (or not) of the allegations which he/she originally charged. Neither agency looks at the evidence other than to "prove" the charges against the teacher, if the Principal makes the allegation to them.
If a parent makes a complaint about a Principal or AP, both agencies - and the OEO under Ms. Santana - will conclude that the allegations are 'unsubstantiated'. Then, documents are prepared to harm the mandated reporter or the reporter's child(ren) for making the allegation against an administrator. The victim will not know anything about this until he/she has been re-assigned, or his/her child had grades changed, failed a subject, etc. The BOE tries its best to sideline anyone's best efforts to stop the retaliation which always follows speaking out against an administrator or policy.
The missing SCI reports are notable for what they don’t include
by Elizabeth Green, Gotham Schools
LINK
I just picked up the 600 pages of reports on wrongdoing and misconduct by city school employees that got sent to Chancellor Joel Klein in 2007 and 2008, but never surfaced publicly. The Post highlighted some of the contents: a Stuyvesant librarian’s unauthorized field trips to a Quiz Bowl, a substitute teacher who showed students a movie in which he appeared with a semi-naked woman.
But the biggest story is what is not in this file: Any investigations into top or even mid-level Department of Education officials, or any evidence of educators fudging student performance data to make their school look better.
The absence is matched by a similar drought among those investigations that have been publicized. The development suggests one of two conclusions. On one hand, the new reports could disprove critics’ concerns that growing pressure to produce higher test scores and graduate more students has led some educators to cheat. They could also squash the speculation that the Special Commissioner of Investigations, Richard Condon, somehow managed to cover up looks into higher-profile targets. On the other hand, the cynical conclusion is that high-level misbehavior and cheating are happening with little intervention from an office whose purpose is to investigate schools for misconduct.
We’ll have to keep digging to figure out where the truth lies. There’s another office inside the Department of Education, the Office of Special Investigations, that has its own set of investigators. It’s possible that OSI, to which SCI sometimes forwards tips, is taking the bulk of these more salacious (and damning) allegations. What you can see in the SCI letters, which we obtained by a FOIL request, is a sense of what the office does investigate. Most of the cases report on school staff (usually not teachers) sleeping with students and staff finagling money from the school that they hadn’t earned. But there’s also an interesting report from May 2008, when investigators nabbed a Manhattan math teacher for sharing confidential student records with another teacher, without the consent of his principal.
The teacher, Carlos Grajales, said he was using the records to help assign students to a new algebra class, according to the report sent to Klein. “Grajales believed that if he conducted a comparison of the Math proficiency of the students, then he could properly identify the students who did not belong in the class,” the report says.
That means the worst-case scenario is that when teachers complain about principals and guidance counselors fudging results to make their school look better, no investigation happens. But when a teacher tries to use data to improve the educational situation for his/her students, he/she gets in trouble.
The investigation into a top school official that you never read
Posted By Elizabeth Green On December 5, 2008 @ 11:54 am
The big news of the day is this story in today’s Daily News [2] and Times [3], about Christopher Cerf, a deputy schools chancellor who is one of Joel Klein’s closest aides. The News reports that investigators last year concluded that Cerf had violated city law, by improperly using his position to extract a $60,000 donation from a company on contract with the city at the time, Edison Schools. The donation would have gone to a charity on whose board Cerf sat and which he told investigators he was trying to save. Ultimately, after being questioned by investigators, Cerf decided not to pursue the donation.
The violation is noteworthy, especially given the other conflict-of-interest imbroglio Cerf was wrapped up in at the time: After coming under fire for holding substantial stock in the same company, Edison, which he had been president of before coming to the department, Cerf released his holdings in the stock — but only 24 hours before being publicly questioned about it. [4]
But it will become even more noteworthy in the days ahead because of this: The report was never publicly released. It’s only surfacing now because of a Freedom of Information Law request originally filed by Leonie Haimson, the executive director of Class Size Matters (and no friend of the Department of Education’s, to be sure). And even this copy — which I have and am trying to upload for everyone else to see — is heavily redacted, as you can see above.
The result is not only resurrected questions about Cerf’s propriety, but bigger questions about how sufficiently the Department of Education is held accountable. The DOE claims its current structure has more accountability than ever before, since, if the public isn’t happy with the schools and their officials, they can vote out the mayor who runs them. But advocates charge that the current structure allows school officials to hide from scrutiny. This report provides them some new ammunition.
The DOE is arguing that the investigation is not relevant because, according to Cerf, it “exonerated” him. Here’s what Cerf told the Times:
“If you’re asking me do I have any regrets, I will tell you absolutely not,” Mr. Cerf said. “I did absolutely what I was supposed to do. I disclosed everything; the Conflicts of Interest Board gave it the back of its hand.”
“Raising money for a not for profit, tell me, what’s wrong with that?” he added.
“There is nothing here other than an investigation that exonerated me. The only real story here is that I was put through a rather tortuous experience.”
URLs in this post:
[1] Image: http://gothamschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/picture-6.png
[2] Daily News: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2008/12/04/2008-12-04_schools_big_eyed_by_conflict_board.html
[3] Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/05/education/05cerf.html?ref=nyregion
[4] Cerf released his holdings in the stock — but only 24 hours before being publicly questioned about it.: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/09/nyregion/09edison.html
Richard Condon: Unauthorized Psychoanalysis
By James C. McIntosh, M.D., Black Star News, September 19th, 2007
LINK
First of a seven-part series
You cannot understand the mind of Richard J. Condon, Special Commissioner of Investigation For The New York City Public Schools until, you firstly get past the inflated, euphemistic and extremely misleading title of his office and secondly, until you know who is his boss. Condon is not special and his mind is not a special mind. He is not really a commissioner and he does not think as a commissioner thinks. He is certainly neither for the New York City Schools nor is he a part of the Department of Education. He is not an educator. He is simply a Cop of the extremely ordinary variety. His mind is the mind of a cop of the extremely ordinary variety. He knows, even if you don’t, who is his boss and who is not. He knows, even if you do not, what his boss wants and doesn’t want. Lastly he knows how and which people to bop in the head to achieve what his boss wants and that’s all any cop, no matter what you call him, needs to know.
Yet by law, the un-special and extremely ordinary Condon has special even super powers. He can examine or remove any record in the public school system. He can investigate any complaint, rumor or suspicion of improper or unethical behavior in the NYC School System. He can even initiate investigations without probable cause. He can issue reports that are covered in the media as if they are judge’s decisions rather than simple cop reports. He can literally force the removal of any employee of the New York City School system from the Chancellor on down. Only in America could a little cop boy from Staten Island grow up to wield such power. Condon is clearly a beneficiary of the only Affirmative Action that survives in North America; the white kind.
Affirmative Action For A Trojan Horse
Condon’s Affirmative Action began with meeting and hanging out with the right people. According to former mayor, Edward I. Koch, as quoted by David Dunlap in the New York Times, October 24, 1989, Condon met Edward Koch in Greenwich Village in 1965 while Koch was walking with Allen Ginsberg the poet and Ginsberg’s companion, Peter Orlovsky. Koch is quoted to say that he was amazed to discover that Condon already “knew Ginsberg and he knew his poetry.” Koch is further quoted to say that he, then invited Condon “into a coffee shop” with him, Peter and Allen. Koch apparently remembered this extremely ordinary cop for a long time because in the very last nine weeks of Koch’s term of office, 24 years later, he appointed Condon as the New York City Commissioner of Police for what Condon hoped would be a five year term. Wisely, the next mayor, David Dinkins, wasted no time getting rid of, Koch’s “Trojan Horse” and in January 1990 replaced Condon with an educated Black man named Dr. Lee Brown.
Impersonating A Lawyer Again: Bloomberg Changes Rules.
Ironically, the post Condon now holds was created by the same Black man, who rejected and humiliated him, Mayor David Dinkins. Condon is immensely unqualified for this post, especially as it was originally designed. Dinkins’ Executive order 11 of June 28, 1990, which established this position, specifically states that the Deputy Commissioner (The title didn’t get inflated to Special Commissioner until 1992) should be an attorney “in good standing with the bar of the State of New York”.
It further states that this Special Commissioner should be independent of the Board of Education (Department of Education) but under the auspices of the Commissioner of The Department of Investigation. This oversight by the Commissioner of Investigation is still true today. In keeping with these standards, the first Special (Deputy) Commissioner that Dinkins Appointed, Dr. Ed Stancik was not only an attorney in good standing with the bar, but a scholar, a former prosecutor and former Managing Editor for the Law Review at Columbia University Law School.
It wasn’t until 12 years later, on June 18, 2002, that Michael Bloomberg issued his own Executive Order 15, which lowered the job’s standards by removing the requirement for admission to the bar. Bloomberg thereby also removed one of the safeguards against unethical behavior. Did he do this just so Condon could “assume” the position? It appears so.
For on the same day of the issuance of Executive order 15 lowering the requirements for the position, Bloomberg issued a press release announcing Condon’s appointment as Special Commissioner. Bloomberg’s executive order reshaped the position functionally from prosecutor to cop leaving “5 years of law enforcement experience” as the only pre-requisite for the job.
Technically, an experienced Kmart guard who had the good fortune to double date with the right couple at the right coffee shop would also now qualify for the job; that is, providing he or she has the temerity and lack of ethics to impersonate a lawyer.
Countering The Conspiracy To Un-employ White Men
With his career birthed by Koch, buried by Dinkins exhumed by Bloomberg, Richard J. Condon was with the stroke of a pen, empowered to bring New York City style policing to the Department of Education. To Date Condon has been a one man wrecking crew for educated Blacks of the type that deep sixed his career in 1990.
In an orgy of undoing, selective perception and selective prosecution, Condon has gotten rid of the very best Black educators, especially the few Black men educators in the system. His victims have included Dr. Lee McCaskill the principal of Brooklyn Tech who was getting record numbers of Black males to successfully complete Advanced Placement courses and who was getting 95 percent of the Black boys at his school to graduate, Dr. Walter Turnbull, the Founder of internationally acclaimed Boys Choir of Harlem and Director of Academy associated with it, and most recently Mr. Shango Blake the Middle school principal of Junior High School 109 in District 29 of Queens, who had taken his school from the lowest performing in the district to the highest performing in the District during his four year tenure.
Ex Post Fictional - Who To Be Unkind To
The kind of folks upon whom Condon’s boss has unleashed him, are the very kind of people with whom Condon has a score to settle—educated Black men of achievement especially any that might have the first name Lee.
When each of these educated Black men of achievement was bopped in the head by Condon, predictably, many people complained. However, they typically directed their complaints to Joel Klein, the Chancellor of the NYC Department of Education, under the mistaken idea that Klein is Condon’s boss.
Condon is not an educator; he is a cop. If Black People don’t know he is a cop, for them he is an undercover cop. So who is his boss? Klein is demonstrably not Condon’s boss. Condon could literally tell Klein or any of Klein’s subordinates to go stand in the corner and he or she would have to do it.
Executive Order 11 makes obstruction of the Special Commissioner grounds for removal from the system. Klein, on the other hand, can’t touch Condon’s subordinates. When Condon’s Deputy Regina Loughran came under harsh criticism for allegedly mishandling, prior to Condon’s arrival, a number of child molestation cases, Klein’s opinion was not a factor. One of Condon’s first demonstrations of his power was protecting her from all critics. Conversely, against Klein’s wishes, Condon bopped the head of Klein’s handpicked Deputy, Diana Lam as soon as she got into office.
Condon charged that she had used her position to help her husband to get a job. (Her husband presumably gets his java from a different shop than Condon and Koch.) Klein could not protect her or her husband. To insure that Klein never forgets the power dynamic, Condon serves periodic reminders as to who is not boss.
Most recently Condon reversed a disciplinary matter handled totally within Klein’s department regarding school administrators in Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill School. The administrators had been accused of helping students cheat.
So You Want To Play Hardball; I’ll Revoke Your Whistle Blower Status
Although this case was handled by Klein and his subordinates two years ago, Condon, for reasons only he has to know, reviewed and reversed the findings. Condon then blasted Klein’s investigator and wrote a scathing report that attempts to discredit the alleged eyewitness, a teacher named Philip Nobile that had supported Klein’s investigator’s decision. In Condon's report he boldly placed a harbinger of things to come for Mr. Nobile who refused to change his story for Condon.
Condon warns in his report, referring to Nobile, “We have determined that he did not meet the statutory requirements to obtain whistleblower status. Nobile did not report his allegations of cheating and of a cover-up to one of the enumerated agencies in the whistleblower law.” Translation: “Technically, Mr. Klein, this witness blew the wrong whistle to the wrong tune to the wrong people so you, any of your subordinates or I can retaliate against this witness with impunity and I recommend that we do so.”
Predictably an altogether new investigation charging corporal punishment has been initiated against Nobile, the pesky eyewitness. Corporal punishment is Condon’s standby charge to levy against opponents when the findings in a case haven’t gone his way.
In the Shango Blake Case when his investigation of financial misappropriation revealed no actual stealing, Condon attached an allegation of corporal punishment to his findings on the financial matters. Even though all the eyewitnesses to the alleged punishment said no such corporal punishment occurred, Condon wrote that it occurred and recommended punishment for them--the witnesses.
Cop Heaven
The eyewitnesses in the cases Condon encounters are particularly vulnerable to intimidation by Condon because they typically work for the Department of Education.
Executive order 11 allows Condon to investigate anyone working for the Department of Education for virtually any suspicion, including Condon’s own self initiated suspicions, presumably as many times as he becomes suspicious.
Should a member of the Department of Education disagree with Condon, Condon needs only to work himself up into a suspicion of that person. He then can investigate until he finds some more things about which to become suspicious.
He can repeat that process over and over until ultimately he can bop that person in the head. He doesn’t need probable cause to go in. He doesn’t have to worry about disbarment because he is only impersonating a lawyer.
He doesn’t have to worry about the cost of his cases since the Department of Investigation does not have to foot the bill. Executive Order 11 specifies that the Department of Education has to pay for his investigations, no matter how costly and presumably no matter how frivolous or unwarranted the charge. Condon has deep pockets and a full arsenal of Cop tricks learned over the course of a 50 year Cop career and people don’t even know he’s a cop. Condon is in Cop Heaven. If he is in Cop Heaven, then who is his boss? Be Careful; this is a trick question.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Allegations of assault upon a student have been levied on Derrick Townsend, assistant principal of PS 154 in the Bronx
LINK
Nothing better illustrates the double standard of how teachers and administrators are treated when it comes to charges of either physical or verbal abuse than the PS 154x story where people have been trying to tell the DOE about the actions of the school administration.
This story is very ironic in the light of my old teaching buddy Kathy Blythe about to "celebrate" her 2nd anniversay in the rubber room for sitting a child who tried to run out of the room in her seat (see (Tales From the Rubber Room: The Kathy Blythe Story,
Principal Parrots Leadership Academy Lingo...)
The principal incited the parent to call the cops and 5 showed up to arrest Kathy who was taken in hand cuffs from the school after 22 years of teaching there. Later, the cop in charge said it was all clearly bullshit. The backdrop was that kathy had run for chapter leader and lost by 1 vote, so this was clearly retaliation for union activity. The union did nothing, of course.
So compare what happened to Kathy and how AP Derrick Townshend has been treated. An Ed Notes stringer reports from the scene of the crime:
A 9 year old female student has charged that on February 13, 2009, Derrick Townsend had dragged her by the arm and leg for up to ten minutes leaving bruises and scratches on her arm. This came after the girl reported to Mr Townsend that a boy had roughed her up during recess. Originally Mr Townsend had called the girl a "drama queen" in front of the girl's third grade class and when the girl became upset Mr Townsend yanked her out of her chair, and a struggle ensued in the classroom and the hallway. Two teachers and up to fifty students witnessed the assault.
This assault was reported immediately to the Office of Special Investigation and Ms Irizarry, but since Ms Irizarry was in Florida at the time, Mr Townsend initially headed the investigation and collected all witness statements.
Linda Amill-Irizarry conducted a full investigation upon her return and found the assault upon the 9 year old girl unsubstantiated after an interview with witnesses. Later this was found to be incorrect since Ms Irizarry never interviewed any witnesses. Ms Irizarry later claimed that all witness statement appear to have been misplaced and that no further review is warranted.
This is not the first time this school year on in Mr Townsend's tenure as assistant principal at PS 154 that Mr Townsend has had allegations of assault at PS 154. It has been alleged that Mr Townsend dragged an 11 year old student approximately 150 feet and tore the boy's shirt in the process; dragged a special needs kindergarten student 40 feet in the hallway; pulled another boy by the arm when he refused to heed Mr Townsend's commands that he come with him, twisting the boy's arm in the process; and dragging another student in the school yard. As of the date when the girl was dragged OSI was still "looking into" these matters.
After FOX 5 News, Telemundo 47 News, News12 Bronx, and the New York Post reported the assault on the 9 year old girl, Mr Townsend is still assigned to PS 154.
The mother of the 9 year old girl was repeatedly rebuffed in her efforts to meet with Ms Irizarry and now has made a decision that criminal charges will be filed against Mr Townsend. These are expected to be filed early this week.
1:25 PM, March 22, 2009
Anonymous said...
Maria Cavallo-Best, AP of PS 3 Staten Island, dragged a student from the his class. When father called and complained that his son was hurt. Best tried to lay the blame on two classroom teachers who did not have any physical contact with the student. Eventually Best owned up to her action. Want to know what happened to her? Nothing was done by the administration and OSI.
Next: The arbitrators
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