Join the GOOGLE +Rubber Room Community

Saturday, October 29, 2016

Code Blue And Rushell White's Almost Fatal Mistake

Assistant Principal James Randall had an emergency event happen to him on Friday morning October 14, 2016 at around 9:00AM while at his school, MS 226. That much we know:

MS 226 Rushell White is the Worst Principal in New York City and a Liability For the NYC Department of Education


We also know that a teacher in the room at the time called 911 when Mr. Randall fell to the floor, unconscious, and we know that MS 226 Principal Rushell White did not call a CODE BLUE on Randall. This is her almost fatal mistake in the matter concerning Jim Randall, but we are all hoping that she gets fired for this. There has been too many errors of judgment.

Rushell White went with AP Randall in the ambulance to the hospital. Ruben Wills visited the hospital soon after, and several times after that. Did Rushell White send him to find out the damages? No one knows why he was there.

APs Michelle Cohen, Juliet Adams, David Possner, Principal Rushell White,
APs Jennifer Shirley-Brown and James Randall
Sign the petition
Petition calls for principal’s removal
Rushell White allegedly failed to follow protocol during health crisis
Rushell White, principal of JHS 226 in South Ozone Park, is no stranger to controversy but her latest troubles have sparked calls for her removal.



An online petition with a little more than 100 signatures calls for White to be fired after she allegedly failed to follow proper protocol as one of her teachers suffered a massive heart attack.
“Ms. White’s negligence nearly killed this man and for that, she needs to be removed as Principal of 226,” the petition reads.
A secretary at the school, located at 121-10 Rockaway Blvd., said White did not wish to provide a comment for this story.
According to a source close to the school, teacher James Randall suffered a heart attack while on the job.
The source alleges the principal, despite knowing of the Randall’s condition, did not call for a Code Blue or alert an employee trained in CPR for 10 minutes, during which time the teacher went without oxygen.
The source said Randall is at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in critical condition.
The petition alleges that the teacher and White were “at odds about the direction the school was taking,” but did not specify what the two were clashing over.
Those who have signed onto the petition blasted White for not helping Randall.
“Forget about merely being fired ... this person should be brought up on criminal charges,” a signee named Brian Roberts wrote.
“As a former staff member at MS 226 I am horrified that this has happened to someone I respected and worked with for 17 years,” Susan Sgambati wrote. “There is No Excuse for not calling a Code Blue. To say that the atmosphere in that building is frightening is an understatement. Prayers for James Randall.”
The Department of Education and the United Federation of Teachers did not respond to requests for comment on the petition at press time.
White has been under fire many times before, including earlier this year for having students paint her as a Hindu goddess.
The mural was removed after Hindu activists ordered Mayor de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Carmen FariƱa to apologize for the insensitive painting.
The mural was also the subject of controversy as it seemed to depict Assistant Principal David Possner as the “bad boy in the corner.”
Possner has been at odds with the school’s administration, having revealed many of the alleged problems within the building including cheating on state tests, led by White, and cover-ups.
White gave Possner an unsatisfactory rating for the 2014-15 school year, shortly after he began to reveal the alleged problems at the school.
Possner sued the DOE to have the rating vacated and a court sided with him on Sept. 1, saying it lacked “rational basis” and that proper procedure was not followed in giving it to the assistant principal.
White is also accused of covering up verbal and physical abuse committed by her administrators.

re-posted from Parentadvocates.org:

CODE BLUE and NYC Principal Rushell White's Almost Fatal Mistake 


Rushell White
by Betsy Combier, Editor, Parentadvocates.org
October 28, 2016

From Editor Betsy Combier:

All New York City public schools must have defibrillators and an employee trained to use this equipment in an emergency, since 2002. On October 14, 2016, at Queens middle school MS 226, Assistant Principal James Randall fell to the floor, unconscious, in his office. A teacher in the office immediately called 911 and the main office. Principal Rushell White, who we have called the worst principal in New York City because of her harassment and abusive actions toward AP David Possner and others, did not call a CODE BLUE to get help to Mr. Randall. The MS 226 defibrillator is on the 1st floor, behind the security desk. However, no one at MS 226, ran to Randall with a defibrillator so that he would not be without oxygen reaching his brain for any length of time. The damage Randall suffered by Rushell White's neglect is unknown at this time.

David Possner

Randall was revived by the EMTs, but remains in Jamaica hospital in the Intensive Care Unit. But clearly, by her neglect and/or incompetence, Rushell White is a liability to the New York City Department of Education and must be fired. Unfortunately and shockingly, Ernest Logan, the President of the CSA, appointed Rushell White to the CSA Executive Board in the spring of 2016. Why, no one knows, but he will put his political power behind his decision or he will look like a fool. Ernest Logan should resign as CSA President if he does not charge White with 3020-a.

Asked by reporters why she did not call a CODE BLUE, Rushell White's answer was that she was not in the school at the time. But my sources say that many people saw her in the main office at 9:00AM. Indeed, at around 8:25 AM, the loud speaker at the school announced that there was a car erroneously parked in the parking lot of the school in Rushell White's spot, and this car must be moved. So we know the loud speakers worked.


Why didn't Ms White issue CODE BLUE? Did she not know the law, or deliberately ignored it? Did she ignore the law because she did not know who was trained to use the defibrillator, or did she not give the training at MS 226?


Her negligence is still a mystery, but in my opinion, her dislike for her staff and her students is clouding her professional judgment. The mural that she commissioned from Rush Philanthropic is an example.

Shockingly, the mural was approved by her, and pictures of her with six arms enraged Hindu leaders. AP David Possner is in the far right corner:

MS 226 mural commisioned by Rushell White
The New York City Department of Education has a history of not complying with laws and rules, including the State Law to have a working defibrillator in every school:


State Laws on Cardiac Arrest and Defibrillators 

Public Access Defibrillation

AUTOMATED EXTERNAL DEFIBRILLATOR (AED) PROGRAM CHECKLIST, 

POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

New York State AED Law

AUTOMATED EXTERNAL DEFIBRILLATORS (AEDS) IN SCHOOLS

New York Education Law Section 917

Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs)

AED/CPR Program

Most NYC Schools Still Have No Defibrillators (2003)

"Most NYC Schools Still Without Defibrillators
By Art McFarland
(New York-WABC, January 7, 2004) -

They are required by law, yet many schools in New York City are still not equipped with life-saving defibrillators. The devices were to be placed in schools a year ago, but Eyewitness News has learned the majority of schools has yet to comply.

There are several school-based defibrillators at Stuyvesant High School, which was among the first of 275 city high schools now equipped with the devices.

Martha Singer, Assistant Principal: "I think it's very important to have any new technology available to save lives."

But nearly 1,000 city schools are not yet equipped with the life-saving devices, in spite of a state law, passed a year and a half ago, requiring all schools to have them.

Rachel Moyer, Defibrillator Advocate: "How many kids have to die before you realize that there's a law that says that you're supposed to have a defibrillator in all public schools?"

Rachel Moyer became an advocate for the devices, after her own son died at an upstate school with no defibrillator.

Rachel Moyer: "Well I sent my child off to basketball game, and he was a healthy kid. And he died."

The city Department of Education has purchased more defibrillators, but they are in storage at a warehouse in Queens. There are said to be hundreds of defibrillators inside, many of which have been storage for months.

James Oddo, (R) NYC City Council: "It borders on negligent that 18 months after the state has passed a law, we still have the Department of Education not complying with that law."

The Department of Education says the seven hours of training required for the machines have stalled their being deployed to all schools; and that there is no designated state funds for that training. And the Department of Education says it expects every school to have one by the end of this school year."

In 2005, I published an article on this website about a boy who lost his life because there was no defibrillator at his school:

Mom Sues NYC DOE For the Death of Her Son While At School; There was No Defibrillator

I also wrote about how in 2003 Deputy Chancellor Anthony Shorris testified at New York City Council against buying defibrillators for every school, saying he did not see any need to spend the money:

New York City's Political Mess: Hide the Skeletons, Deny, Deny, Deny...This is How it Works

NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio has a cloudy record as far as money and transparency is concerned, and so did Mayor Bloomberg.

Rushell White, at right
There are City-wide Cut-backs for Education, But Raises for Mayor Bloomberg's Pals and Deputy Mayors



(I own the trademark of the "A For Accountability", above)

Of course we all know that politics is Silencing Opposition: Education Policy Implementation Becomes a Matter of National Security

We attended NYC Deputy Chancellor Anthony Shorris' presentation to the NY City Council on the expense of defibrillators. He told the audience that despite the law mandating that each and every public school be equipped with these life-saving devices, he had nixed this idea because there was no money. A story on his astounding approach - he was indeed at the same time making a double salary in violation of the Conflicts of Interest Board rules and our own Chancellor Joel Klein knew this - is here:

DOUBLE-DIPPER KLEIN AIDE OUT Moonlighting school deputy quits

BY Alison Gendar, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS, Saturday, July 26, 2003, 12:00 AM

Double-dipping Deputy Schools Chancellor Anthony Shorris has decided to pack it in - a week after the Daily News exposed his moonlighting at a second, high-paying job on school time. Shorris resigned his $168,700-a-year job as one of Chancellor Joel Klein's three deputies effective Aug. 31 to take a job as a visiting professor at Princeton University. His resignation came after The News revealed Shorris had been working Thursday mornings as a $60,000- to $100,000-a-year consultant for Local 1199, and splashed his photo on the front page. Shorris moonlighted with Klein's approval, as well as nods from Klein's predecessor and the city's Conflicts of Interest Board. Public reaction, however, was less forgiving. "Who needs this s---?

" Shorris said to a colleague when he told him of his pending departure. Klein's staff said yesterday the move had been planned and Shorris was not forced out. "He has served the Department (of Education) and the children of New York City with great distinction, and he will be sorely missed," Klein said. Shorris, who started at the then-Board of Education in 2001, had taken the deputy chancellor post with the understanding that he would help the new administration get its plans off the ground, Klein's staff said. Shorris has had numerous run-ins with Klein on a number of key issues, staffers said, from how to implement President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act to the reorganization of the bureaucracy, which was led by an outside consultant. The chancellor's tepid support of Shorris when the double-dipping story broke was the final indignity, sources said. The deputy acknowledged that he had been doing several hours of consulting work on Thursdays for the union's nonprofit health care fund. Former Chancellor Harold Levy, who approved the unusual arrangement, said Shorris put in long hours, nights and weekends for the system, and so a few hours one morning a week were never missed. Shorris is taking a job at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs - the same one he turned down a year ago to be part of Klein's inner circle. Klein's $168,700-a-year chief of staff, LaVerne Srinivasan, will take Shorris' job as one of the chancellor's three deputies. Tweed insiders questioned whether the chief of staff had the experience needed to pick up where Shorris, a career public servant and holdover from the previous administration, left off. The chancellor, however, said Srinivasan, a lawyer and former music executive, was "without question one of the most talented managers I have worked with in the public and private sectors."

See here as well:
Panel Investigates Deaths of 3 Students
by Tom Kertes, Education Update, March 3, 2003


I believe that a newspaper showed Mr. Shorris getting out of a publicly-funded chauffeur-driven limousine around the same time as he refused to pay for the AEDs. He evidently took his son to a private school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, on the public dime.

Mr. Shorris was the first Deputy Mayor appointed by the de Blasio administration after Bill de Blasio was elected Mayor. Go figure that one out. Shorris met his wife, Maria Laurino, when they were both working for David Dinkins, who was Mayor of New York City 1990-1993. NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio met his wife Chirlane McCray also while working for David Dinkins.

In sum, MS 226 staff and students are in danger. Principal Rushell White is so consumed with excuses for her bully behavior and getting money from scoundrel Ruben Wills that the health, safety and well-being of the employees and students in her school are far from her mind.

But I would like to congratulate AP David Possner, who, because of his bravery and strength, has brought all of the information about Rushell White to the media and has withstood the most degrading retaliation of Rushell White (a mural? Called a "bad jew"?)

On Friday October 28, 2016, David sent me the following:

"Ms. White was in the school library with AP Shirley and the science coach, Ms. Bucknor. Earlier in the morning a repairmen, Miguel, from Dell computers came to fix some computer keyboards that were broken. When he was finished, I asked if him I could show him some broken keyboards in the computer lab in the back of the library. Ms. White then walked into the computer lab and asked what I was doing. I explained that the Dell repairman was here to fix keyboards, and I wanted him to look at the keyboards in the computer lab to fix them. She directed me to leave. As I was leaving, I was holding the Dell repairman's receipts that he needed me to sign. Ms. White then walked to the other side of the library, and called me over and stated that "she needed a favor". She stated: "Never come near me. Never be in my presence. When you see me, leave the room. When you see me coming, walk in the other direction."

Great walls of China! Rushell White is making it impossible for David to do his job, which necessitates communicating with her, but if he does, he could get charged with insubordination. This Catch 22 must be addressed by CSA. What say you, Ernest Logan?

Stay tuned for Principal White's next act of retaliation. People consumed by hate and anger never think rationally.

Betsy Combier
President, Advocatz and The E-Accountability Foundation
Editor, Parentadvocates.org
Editor, NYC Rubber Room Reporter
Editor, New York Court Corruption
Editor, National Public Voice
Editor, NYC Public Voice
Editor, Inside 3020-a Teacher Trials