Bullying is always sad.
But when the bullying leads to a senseless death, then someone must be held accountable.
Aileen Jiminian, 17, jumped in front of a train on Thursday because she was bullied too much, say fellow students at the Manhattan Village Academy.
The Principal, Hector Geager, tried his best to keep the tragedy a secret and evidently went from room to room saying that there was an "accident". He sent out a letter to all families, begging the students to not post anything about the sudden death on any social media. Someone at the school sent it to me:
Students feel guilty after bullied teen jumps in front of train
A Manhattan student who was
bullied by classmates slipped out of school during lunch hour — and killed
herself by stepping into the path of a subway train, The Post has learned.
Aileen
Jiminian, 17, a senior, left the Manhattan Village Academy campus in Flatiron
on Thursday and climbed onto the tracks at the 23rd Street Station on Seventh
Avenue, where she was fatally struck by a 1 train at around 12:30 p.m., police
said.
“She
wasn’t in my grade, but I know that other kids would pick on her,” a student
said Monday.
“It’s
really sad. She would get called stupid or ugly or awkward. Some kids are just
really mean.”
Several
students went to the school’s grief counselor and said they were upset with
themselves over “how they treated her,” said a Manhattan Village Academy source.
“Some of
the students were feeling guilty because they were so mean to her,” the source
said.
School
staff told students not to discuss Jiminian and described her death as an
“accident,” according to the school source.
“We were
told not to talk about her or what happened,” a student said.
“Our
teacher told us last week that she got into a bad accident.”
The
school sent out a letter to students’ families on Monday informing them that
Jiminian had “passed away.”
“This
loss of Aileen is sure to raise many emotions, concerns, and questions for our
entire school, especially our students,” reads the letter, which was signed by
the school’s principal, Hector Geager.
It ends
with a plea to parents to ask their kids not to post anything about Jiminian
online.
“Please,
at the request of Aileen’s family, impress upon your child not to post any
information regarding this tragedy on social media,” the letter says.
Jiminian
was a 2016 semifinalist for the New York Times College Scholarship program. She
had a twin sister who attends the school.
Manhattan
Village Academy referred all questions to the Department of Education.
“I am
deeply saddened by the tragic loss of one of our students and my heart breaks
for her family and the entire school community at Manhattan Village Academy,”
Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña said in a statement.
“We are
working closely with the school to provide crisis resources to support and
comfort those grieving during this very difficult time.”
Additional
reporting by Susan Edelman and Danika Fears
September 6, 2011 | 4:00am
 |
| SLAP ON THE WRIST: Manhattan Village Academy Principal Hector Geager was fined for illegally expelling a student. |
The city cut backdoor deals with a handful of misbehaving
principals last year rather than seek stiffer penalties through disciplinary
hearings, records obtained by The Post show.
Among those who signed hush-hush agreements with the Department
of Education was Manhattan Village Academy Principal Hector Geager — who dealt
with a troublesome student by altering her transcript, handing her a diploma
and illegally expelling her three months shy of graduation.
The student, whom Geager also barred from prom and graduation,
told officials that the popular principal had “simply given her the passing
grades to get her out,” according to an internal DOE probe.
Before even filing charges last year, however, DOE officials
reached an agreement not to pursue further discipline against Geager if he
simply paid a $10,000 fine.
Geager, who remains principal of a school that boasted a 98
percent graduation rate last year, did not respond to an e-mail seeking
comment.
But critics say these types of plea bargains highlight an
increased hesitancy by the DOE to forcefully discipline wayward principals ever
since it granted them more authority — and took on a greater role in selecting
them — several years back.
“The Bloomberg Department of Ed can’t define ‘accountability’ to
simply be rating students and teachers with standardized tests,” said Patrick
Sullivan, the Manhattan appointee to the Panel for Educational Policy. “Transgressions
of administrators need to be addressed in a fair and transparent fashion rather
than hidden to avoid embarrassment to the adults in the administration.”
Other deals reached last year include one for former HS for
International Business and Finance Principal Juan Alvarez, who tackled a
student in The Bronx school and e-mailed an anti-Semitic rant to a fellow
principal. Alvarez was demoted but allowed to stay around students as a
teacher.
DOE spokeswoman Barbara Morgan said the agency takes principals’
work histories and the facts of each case into account, and added that
officials felt the school leaders had been properly held accountable.
“These settlements allowed us to move forward quickly, so that
the schools could focus on teaching and learning, without these matters serving
as a distraction,” she said.
Additional reporting by Amber Sutherland and Lachlan Cartwright
Case Study # 1
A Department of Education probe confirmed that Iris Blige,
principal of the Fordham HS for the Arts, instructed assistant principals to
give poor ratings to teachers without actually observing them. Blige signed a
deal agreeing to pay a $7,500 fine.
Case Study # 2
Investigators found Maria Penaherrera of PS 114 had rigged bids
and mismanaged the school onto the city’s closure list. But she’s off the hook
because she agreed to be demoted to assistant principal — with the opportunity
to earn tenure next year.
