The Gill Commission Report (1990) and the Denial of Due Process Rights By the "Investigators" in the Special Commissioner of Investigation (SCI) Office

Anyone in the NYC public school system today must read an article I wrote in 2009 for my website Parentadvocates.org on the establishment of the office of the Special Commissioner of Investigation (SCI). The way that Mike Bloomberg and his appointed non-Attorney, Richard Condon, family friend of Rose Gill Hearn and her dad James Gill, have used their authority to destroy lives and fracture due process is astounding and, in my opinion, ugly.

SCI office at 80 Maiden Lane

Parents, teachers, administrators, and children are made victims by so-called "investigators" who are given immunity as they falsify records, change careers and commit fraud.

My highlighting these agents of doom is part of my expose of the harm that the Department of Education continues to do to innocent people, all for political/financial gain.

By the way, former Department of Investigation head Rose Gill Hearn now works for Bloomberg Associates, of course......and the Campaign Finance Board. She's really busy.

More to come.

Betsy Combier

Dear Mike and Joel: Give Us the Money
The Arrogance of Immunity and Fraud Behind Rose Gill Hearn, Richard Condon, SCI, OSI, and OEO
Lawrence Scott III, Agent of the NYC DOE Office of Special Investigations (OSI), Sexually Assaults Teacher Natalya Sokolson-Gordon at Her School, PS. 329 in Coney Island, Brooklyn
Secret Emails About Office of Special Investigations Being in Chaos

Special Commissioner of Investigation Richard Condon

Two Reports, "Investigating The Investigators", and 'The Gill Commission Report' (1990) Dont Improve New York City Public Schools

LINK
Editorial: Every person of any age or title who is involved with the NYC public school system is in danger, as long as Richard Condon is Special Commissioner of Investigation for the New York City Public Schools. I have finally copied two books published in March and April 1990 which show the corruption inside New York City's education department: "Investigating the Investigators" and "Findings and Recommendations of the Joint Commission on the Integrity of the Public Schools". Nothing has changed...in fact, the corruption is worse than ever. Betsy Combier





James Gill



On March 15, 1990, Mr. James F. Gill, the appointed Chairman of the Joint Commission on Integrity in the Public schools, wrote a letter to New York City Mayor David N. Dinkins, the Honorable Robert F. Wagner, Jr., President of the Board of Education, and the Honorable Joseph A. Fernandez, Chancellor, in which he expressed his dismay at incompetence of the Board of Education’s Inspector General, Michael P. Sofarelli:

“I am sad to report that the Commission found the Inspector General’s operation woefully inadequate. The office wastes scarce resources that should be devoted to investigating serious crime on ineptly-run investigations of internal management matters. The office lacks experienced personnel and meaningful supervision. The office does not keep track of it’s own work accurately or generate reliable statistics that would enable the public to assess it’s effectiveness.

Not surprisingly, therefore, the office has forfeited the confidence of the system’s employees: 41 percent of the teachers and supervisors who responded to our survey reported that they believed the Inspector General was either minimally effective or completely ineffective. This pervasive distrust of the system’s watchdog is a devastating indictment of the office’s performance and a critical impediment to effective policing.

Because of these findings, the Commission recommends that the Mayor immediately appoint a Special Commissioner to Investigate the Public School System. The new Commissioner should attack crime and corruption with the goal of building solid, prosecutable criminal cases against real criminals. The Commissioner’s staff should be an effective strike force ofcriminal attorneys, police officers, and investigators. The Commissioner’s office should – at least temporarily until it earns the confidence of parents, employees and the public at large – be independent of the Board of Education.”

(Yes, Mr. Sofarelli was removed, but he was then hired by Attorney General Eliot Spitzer to investigate Medicaid fraud in NYC, and the work was so bad that Pataki ordered an overhaul in 2005. Mr. Sofarelli 'retired' from investigating Medicaid in 2003. - Ed)

Mr. Gill then published his findings in a book, “Investigating the Investigators”, which I copied and have made available below:

Investigating the Investigators (Introduction – p. 43)
Investigating the Investigators (pp. 44 – 86)

One month later, Mr. Gill wrote to the same people a letter that became the introduction to his final report:

“Dear Sirs,

This is the final report of the Joint Commission on Integrity in the Public schools, and it contains the Commission’s findings and recommendations I regret to report that we found serious corruption or impropriety almost wherever we looked”…

Findings and Recommendations Of The Joint Commission On Integrity In the Public Schools (Introduction – p. viii)
New Tammany Hall pp. ix – xviii
New Tammany Hall pp.1-37
New Tammany Hall pp. 38-77
New Tammany Hall pp. 78-102
New Tammany Hall pp. 103-163
New Tammany Hall pp. 164-193

Executive Order No. 11 was issued on June 28, 1990 by NYC Mayor David Dinkins, creating the office of the new Deputy Commissioner.

Rose Gill Hearn

Rose Gill Hearn

The facts of the corruption of New York City public schools was very much in the media in 1989-1990:

Panel Urges Watchdog Agency for N.Y.C. Schools
By Ann Bradley, Education Week, Published: June 13, 1990
LINK

A commission charged with investigating corruption in the New York City schools has released a final report calling for the establishment of an independent investigatory agency appointed by the mayor to monitor wrongdoing in the district.

The final report of the Joint Commission on Integrity in the Public Schools, released May 31, summarized findings that had previously been made public.

But it also contained new criticism of the board of education's procedures for disciplining teachers and principals, and fresh disclosures of $94,000 worth of missing computer equipment in one community school district. The report revealed, in addition, that the same community district had spent $17,000 to give its employees electronic paging devices.

In a news conference held to announce the report's release, James F. Gill, chairman of the commission, blamed Robert F. Wagner Jr., president of the board of education, for many of the system's failings.
Mr. Gill called the board a "sleepy-eyed lumbering brontosaurus primarily interested in grazing."
When asked who was to blame for the situation, Mr. Gill responded: "I'll say it--Bob Wagner. He's the president of the board of education. Bob Wagner. Bob Wagner. Bob Wagner."

However, Mr. Gill said in an interview last week that he had "no intention of attacking Bob Wagner personally."
"I hold him in high regard," he said. "The board of education is the group that has overall responsibility for everything in the system, and it should be accountable."

Inspector General's Powers
Mr. Wagner said last week that he attributes Mr. Gill's comments to the fact that the two disagree over what powers an independent inspector general should be given.
The board president said he favors giving the inspector general special prosecutory powers; Mr. Gill said such powers would conflict with the duties of the regular prosecutors' offices.

Mr. Gill charged that the board of education's current inspector general, Michael Sofarelli, has been lax in conducting investigations. "It's an investigatory failure, not a prosecutorial problem," he said last week.
Mayor David Dinkins is expected to make a recommendation on the issue within a month.
Mr. Wagner also noted that several of the commission's criticisms, including the charge that the board had failed to discipline teachers, were in areas affected by state regulations that were not within the board's control.
The commission was appointed by former Mayor Edward I. Koch and the board of education in 1988. The most dramatic moment of its investigation came last year, when the board of Community School District 27 was suspended following allegations of corruption made by Colman Genn, the district's superintendent.
Mr. Genn, who had secretly taped conversations with board members and school employees, testified that board members had made it clear his contract would not be renewed unless he agreed to hire their friends and political associates. (See Education Week, Nov. 1, 1989.)

The report recommended that the New York legislature give district superintendents, rather than community school boards, the power to hire teachers' aides and paraprofessionals. It did not endorse Chancellor Joseph A. Fernandez's proposal to take away local boards' power to appoint school administrators.

June 1, 1990
Wagner Faulted for Schools' Failures by Inquiry Panel Head
By JOSEPH BERGER, NY TIMES

LEAD: The chairman of a commission investigating New York City's schools yesterday called the Board of Education a 'sleepy-eyed lumbering brontosaurus primarily interested in grazing' and singled out its president, Robert F. Wagner Jr., for blame.

The chairman of a commission investigating New York City's schools yesterday called the Board of Education a 'sleepy-eyed lumbering brontosaurus primarily interested in grazing' and singled out its president, Robert F. Wagner Jr., for blame.
'I'll say it - Bob Wagner,' said James F. Gill, chairman of the Joint Commission on Integrity in the Public Schools, when asked whom he was holding responsible for the school system's continuing failures. 'He's the president of the Board of Education. Bob Wagner. Bob Wagner. Bob Wagner.'

In a telephone interview later, Mr. Gill said: 'I don't mean to single him out, but a lot of these things happened on his watch and he is the chief executive officer. So he along with the entire board has to share responsibility when things go wrong, particularly when we make revelations that they haven't acted upon.'

Mr. Gill made his initial remarks at a news conference at the midtown office of his law firm to release the final report on the commission's 17 months of work. The 193-page document contained fresh disclosures about $94,000 of missing computers in one Bronx district and new criticism of the central board for what it said was an inability to discipline teachers.

'An Excuse for Failure'
Mr. Gill, whose commission was created by former Mayor Edward I. Koch and the Board of Education in the wake of a series of disclosures about school corruption, attacked the central board, its bureaucracy and its leadership for what he said was a desire to use the decentralization of the system 20 years ago into 32 local districts 'as an excuse for failure.'
'They seem to have believed that they could just let those districts stew in their own juices, just send them a memo or directive once in a blue moon and then let them sink or swim on their own,' Mr. Gill said.

But even more startling was the attack on Mr. Wagner. The son of a former New York City Mayor, the grandson of a former United States Senator and a confidant of Mr. Koch, Mr. Wagner has been been one of the city's most prominent political fixtures for two decades and played a key role in appointing both the commission and Mr. Gill. By picturing himself as a reformer intent on overhauling a shabby school system, he has generally been able to elude the criticism that regularly befalls that system. His term as board president, a part-time position for which he is paid $20,000 a year, expires at the end of this month. In an interview yesterday, Mr. Wagner, board president since January 1986, dismissed much of the criticism as unfair, saying Mr. Gill was attacking failings that he and the other board members can do little about. He spoke of his battle for legislation that would abolish the Board of Examiners, the agency that tests and licenses teachers, and give the chancellor a greater role in choosing district superintendents.

Mr. Gill said Mr. Wagner was 'very dedicated' and his 'heart was in the right place.' But, he said, he and the rest of the board were 'lumbering' along and had not even responded promptly to repeated findings by his commission of corruption and inefficiency within the school system.

Criticism on Sofarelli
Mr. Wagner, he said, did not dismiss his Inspector General, Michael Sofarelli, even though the commission revealed significant inadequacies in how the office conducted its investigations of wrongdoing by employees. 'Why would you want to continue a guy who has run the office in the way he had run it,' Mr. Gill said in an interview. Mr. Wagner, he said, also did not 'exert his influence' to obtain the removal of the chief investigator for the Board of Examiners after the commission exposed serious flaws in the screening process for new teachers. That process, Mr. Gill said, permitted a teacher convicted of sexual abuse to get appointed to a Bronx junior high school.

More than a year ago, he said, his commission revealed that the board was not certifying parents for eligibility to vote in school board elections, thereby exposing the balloting to fraud.
But the officials responsible, Mr. Gill said, were never disciplined. Eight months ago, he said, the commission tape-recorded a Queens teacher, Richard Lipkowitz, as he boasted of his ability to influence the appointments of the district's administrators. The charges against that teacher, Mr. Gill said, are 'still pending.'
'This kind of inertia, stagnation and inaction is extremely distressing,' Mr. Gill said. 'The kids deserve better. They deserve leaders who will act on their behalf and act in a timely way.'

Roots of the Problem
In response, Mr. Wagner said the disciplinary process for teachers is controlled by state laws and union contracts that carefully protect teacher rights and salaries until the proceedings have run their course. The response to the election certification, he said, was bedeviled by a faulty legal opinion, and, he said, affected only a few voters in any case. The Board of Examiners, he said, is a independent agency that is not under the control of the Board of Education.

Mr. Wagner speculated that Mr. Gill's harsh words have roots in their disagreement over what kind of office should police corruption within the schools. Mr. Gill would like to see the present Inspector General replaced by a Special Commissioner appointed by the mayor who would have subpoena power and a staff of professional investigators. Mr. Wagner prefers an independent special prosecutor who would also be able to bring cases to trial. Mr. Gill thinks Mr. Wagner's proposal impractical since it would be opposed by the city's district attorneys.

Mr. Wagner has also expressed displeasure with the personal attacks on the Inspector General, Mr. Sofarelli, in an earlier report by the Gill Commission.
'It's a reflection of Jim's impatience about the pace of change within the system and how difficult it to make things happen,' Mr. Wagner said.

New Disclosures
In contrast to the criticism of Mr. Wagner, Mr. Gill used only complimentary language in talking about Schools Chancellor Joseph A. Fernandez. But Mr. Fernandez was said by aides to be unhappy with the Gill Commission's refusal to endorse his effort to strip the 32 community school boards of their power to appoint principals and assistant principals.

These aides, who asked for anonymity, said Mr. Gill had personally indicated to Mr. Fernandez that the boards, many of which have been implicated in patronage, should not be permitted to appoint school administrators. But the aides said Mr. Gill then found himself outweighed by three members of the commission and sought to preserve its unity. The account was confirmed by two officials familiar with the Gill Commission's deliberations.

The report was largely a review of the commission's findings over its 17-month life. But there were several new disclosures. On a single day last September, the commission's investigators visited 17 of the 33 schools in School District 9 in the southwest Bronx and found that 80 computers, or 17 percent of those purchased for the schools, and 37 printers, or 26 percent of those purchased, could not be located. Many of these, the investigators later discovered, were moved to other districts but no records were kept of the transfers.

Others 'were left sitting in storage' and went unused by students. Still others, the report said, 'simply disappeared,' though the investigators could not determine whether they were stolen or misplaced.
The commission also found that District 9 spent $17,000 a year so that 68 officials could have beepers, or paging devices. It also found that the district became embroiled in a scheme to allow 40 relatives and friends of district employees to have beepers, but that in many cases the district was not repaid for their use.

The commission also took issue with the school system's unwillingness to discipline teachers. In the 1988-89 school year, it said, 99.7 percent of the system's 65,000 teachers were rated satisfactory, a level of quality that Mr. Gill, a lawyer in private practice, said sardonically could not be matched by any other profession, even his own. Only 12 teachers were dismissed or forced to resign as a result of disciplinary proceedings.

In its recommendations, the commission asked the State Legislature to give district superintendents, rather than local school boards, the power to hire teacher aides and paraprofessionals. It asked the central board to articulate clear policies about discipline 'so that those in charge of discipline are no longer left at sea about what they should consider misconduct and what punishments they should seek.'

March 16, 1990
Investigators For Schools Are Criticized
By JOSEPH BERGER, NY TIMES

LEAD: In a stinging report issued yesterday, the commission examining the New York City public school system said the work of the Board of Education's chief investigative arm was 'reminiscent of the Keystone Kops' and deserved blame for much of the corruption and crime within the system.

In a stinging report issued yesterday, the commission examining the New York City public school system said the work of the Board of Education's chief investigative arm was 'reminiscent of the Keystone Kops' and deserved blame for much of the corruption and crime within the system.

The most dramatic example of ineffectiveness by the school system's Office of Inspector General, the Gill Commission charged, came in the case of Matthew Barnwell, a Bronx principal arrested by the New York City police in November 1988 on charges of buying crack. The Inspector General, the commission said, learned that Mr. Barnwell was using drugs a year before the arrest, but bungled its investigation with 'aimless, lethargic and sporadic' work.

'The investigation was so shoddy that it could be a textbook example of how not to conduct a criminal investigation,' said the report by the commission, which is known formally as the Joint Commission on Integrity in the Public Schools.

Unit Established in '80

The arrest of Mr. Barnwell set off a wave of investigations into allegations of corruption in the school system. This week, three former Bronx school officials who were indicted in one of the inquiries were acquitted of charges stemming from the removal of a baby grand piano from a school. [Page B3.] In its report yesterday, the Gill Commission recommended that the office be replaced with a 'special commissioner to investigate the public schools' who would be appointed by the mayor, be in charge of a squad of police officers, and be given the power to issue subpoenas and make arrests, powers the Inspector General's Office now lacks.

The Inspector General's Office was set up in 1980 to serve as the school system's internal watchdog and handle a wide variety of crimes and violations of school regulations, including thefts of property, political hiring and abuse of students.

In December 1988, after Mr. Barnwell's arrest and several newspaper accounts of corruption, the Gill Commission was created. One of its purposes was to look at how well the school system was policing itself.

The commission's study, titled 'Investigating the Investigator' constituted a 'scathing indictment' of 'bloated, largely ineffective operation whose investigations are often reminiscent of the Keystone Kops,' the panel's chairman, James F. Gill, said at a news conference.

'Significant Illicit Activity'

The Inspector General's 60 investigators, the report said, lack law-enforcement and legal experience, are hamstrung by poor supervision and are not scrupulous about protecting the confidentiality of their sources.

The office's $3.8 million dollar annual budget, Mr. Gill said, 'is squandered on trivial matters instead of focused on significant illicit activity' and more energy seems devoted to 'papering the file than to detecting wrongdoing.'

'I cannot escape the conclusion that some of the responsibility for the corruption that we have uncovered in the school system rests squarely on Inspector General Michael Sofarelli's office,' Mr. Gill said.

In a response, Mr. Sofarelli said the report was 'written in a sensational headline-hunting way' and took unnecessary 'cheap shots at him and his staff. He said his office's inquiries had led to 70 arrests since 1987, including the conviction of 26 school building inspectors charged in a kickback scheme and the suspension or indictments of three school district superintendents.

Low Salaries

He said his office, like the offices of the 26 other inspectors generals at city agencies, was hobbled by low starting salaries for investigators, who are paid about $25,000 to start, which made it difficult to recruit the best investigators or former police officers.

Mr. Sofarelli's deputy, Conrad W. Reitz, said investigators for the Gill Commssion had themselves bungled the arrest of a high school teacher who was buying drugs.

The Gill Commission saved its most vitriolic language for a case study of the Inspector General's handling of a complaint against Mr. Barnwell. On November 24, 1987, a year before Mr. Barnwell's arrest, the board received an anonymous telephone call from a teacher at Public School 53 who said Mr. Barnwell was 'discriminating against non-blacks' in hiring, was borrowing money from teachers without repaying them and was 'a drug user.'

One Interview a Month

Mr. Sofarelli, the report said, was informed of the call the following day, but the first interview to try to confirm the allegation was not conducted until March 10, more than three months later. A chronology provided in the commission's report indicates that the investigator on the case conducted interviews at the rate of one a month with parents, teachers and administrators.

Before any action could be taken by the office, Mr. Barnwell was arrested - without the office's knowledge or participation - by the New York City police as he tried to buy two vials of crack on a Manhattan street. He was convicted of drug possession in January and dismissed.

Mr. Gill said that the Inspector General should have begun a prompt surveillance of Mr. Barnwell, rather than concentrating on interviews with his colleagues. The office's investigator, he said, failed to consult the board's own files on Mr. Barnwell, which would have revealed earlier complaints that Mr. Barnwell 'sat in his office all day playing video games.'

In his rebuttal, Mr. Sofarelli said the original allegation of drug use was included almost as an 'afterthought' in the memorandum he received and so failed to trigger the appropriate urgency. Moreover, he said, the office handles 2,900 complaints a year and many of them are efforts to 'get back' at people.

Three Lawyers

His office's investigator was handling many other cases, he said. And his office, he said, did not try to shadow Mr. Barnwell because it was never told where he used drugs and 'we couldn't follow the man around for 24 hours.'

Mr. Gill's concerns about the Inspector General were more sweeping than just the Barnwell case. The office, he said, had only three lawyers, and only one of those - Mr. Sofarelli, a former prosecutor in Brooklyn - has any experience in criminal matters. Only one of the office's 60 investigators, Mr. Gill said, has a background in police work.

'Sofarelli was on the scene for nine years,' Mr. Gill said. 'He should have done something about it.'

'If he was working for me, he'd go,' Mr. Gill added. Mr. Sofarelli serves at the pleasure of the 7-member board of education and was not hired by the chancellor.

Mr. Gill also told of breaches in confidentiality, including one investigator who left his name and title at the school that was being investigated. Such breaches, Mr. Gill said may explain why Colman Genn, the superintendent of District 27 in Brooklyn, went to the commission rather than the Inspector General with his startling allegations of political hiring.

Mr. Gill said that a survey of school employees taken by the commission showed that 44 percent of those interviewed would feel 'uncomfortable bringing a complaint' to the Inspector General.

In responses to the commission, both Mayor David N. Dinkins and Robert F. Wagner Jr., indicate interest in or support for supportive the idea of creating an investigative agency totally independent of the Board of Education. Mr. Wagner, however, pointed out that unless salaries were raised, the independent office would also not attract the best law and police school graduates.

October 24, 1989
New York Times
Tapes of School Officials: Ante Becomes 'Little Higher'

LEAD: These are excerpts from conversations taped by Colman Genn, superintendent of School District 27 in Queens, with James C. Sullivan, the school board treasurer, Samuel Granirer, board vice president, and William Sampol, a former Republican state legislative aide seeking a $42,000-a-year district job, and others over a course of seven months.
These are excerpts from conversations taped by Colman Genn, superintendent of School District 27 in Queens, with James C. Sullivan, the school board treasurer, Samuel Granirer, board vice president, and William Sampol, a former Republican state legislative aide seeking a $42,000-a-year district job, and others over a course of seven months. The opening excerpts are from a conversation that generally revolved around Mr. Sullivan's and Mr. Granirer's complaints that Mr. Genn had hired too many black assistant principals and not enough of the people they wanted. Feb. 6, 1989
GENN: Jimmy, you're not going to take all the blacks off the list because . . .
SULLIVAN: Yes. If you're gonna put them in, we're gonna take them out. Yeah. If there was movement to play, I'd play. You know what I mean? (A few minutes later)
SULLIVAN: And a year from now, your contract is going to be up. And I'm telling you this, as your friend. As board members who'll probably be sitting here.
GENN: I'm sure you will all be sitting here.
SULLIVAN: O.K. Do you understand what the considerations become then? And how the ante becomes, becomes a little higher under those new guidelines?
GENN: I understand, but I can't let that become.
GRANIRER: (Unintelligible)
GENN: How I run my life . . .
SULLIVAN: I understand that. But you understand what our concerns are.
GENN: I understand that I would not get another contract.
SULLIVAN: It's possible. Sept. 13, 1989
SULLIVAN: You know, nobody's looking to fleece anybody. Honestly we're not, Cole.
GENN: Yeah, I understand.
SULLIVAN: If I thought, if I thought that they were really hurting instruction, wanting a whole (expletive) piece that would make a big, major difference, I wouldn't go for it. Honestly, at the end of the day, I'm a political leader - that's why I'm here.
GENN: Yeah.
SULLIVAN: And I make sure my people get (expletive) jobs. When I came into this district, and it's true, Cole, there were three Irish supervisors out of 157 people. Now, when the blacks come up, they say, 'Well, don't tell us that there aren't enough blacks that are qualified.' That's true.
GENN: Mmm-hmm.
SULLIVAN: But don't expect me to believe that about my own people either.
GENN: Mmm-hmm.
SULLIVAN: Except that the avenues were never there for them to participate, because Marvin (Aaron, former district superintendent) hired out of the synagogue. That's between you and I.' Sept. 18, 1989
GENN: You left a resume with Tony (an unidentified district worker) .
SAMPOL: Yes, I did.
GENN: O.K., you brought him the resume. The resume that you brought him is, really doesn't focus at any education kinds of activities.
SAMPOL: O.K.
GENN: Umm, and it's my understanding that, according to Jimmy (Sullivan) , that he wants me to tailor it, the job description, umm, to meet you skills and your background.
SAMPOL: O.K. Or I can change my resume around a little if you like. What, whatever.
GENN: Yeah. I think I'll . . . if you could get me a current resume.
SAMPOL: O.K.
GENN: And focus on the educational things that you've done.
SAMPOL: O.K.
GENN: Umm, and deal with those kinds of issues, umm. I can then either sit with you or, umm, you know, work it out with you.
SAMPOL: O.K.

See also the NY Times' articles on District 27.
Ed Stancik investigated. (I love the last line of his report, in a footnote p. 9:"...Ms. Russell('s)...motivation was political self-preservation, not prejudice.")

Genn died at the age of 68 in July, 2004 - Editor

Ed Stancik was appointed as the first Special Commissioner of Investigation of the New York Public Schools in 1992. Hisindependence from the Board of Education and the Mayor bothered both Commissioner Hearn and Mayor Bloomberg, so when he died at the age of 47 on March 12, 2002, there was alot of talk about how to control this office...so that "favored" administrators, teachers, and parents would not be caught. Mayor Bloomberg issued EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 15 on June 18, 2002, which changed the Special Commissioner's required background from an Attorney to a person with "at least five years of law enforcement experience". Then, Rose Gill Hearn, the Commissioner of the Department of Investigation, (and James Gill's daughter) appointed her dad's friend, Richard Condon.

Mr. Condon is not an attorney, as required in Executive Order No. 11, he was appointed by his friend Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn after Mayor Bloomberg changed EXECUTIVE ORDER 11 to EXECUTIVE ORDER 15, which opened the door to an individual who was not an attorney to fill the Special Commissioner's job. It is fair to say after speaking with parents, teachers, and administrators of NYC public schools that Mr. Condon has brought the NYC Public School system to a new level of lawlessness and corruption. The case of Teddy Smith is an example of this. By all accounts, he has created a reign of terror that will never be forgotton, nor, sadly for the current education administration, forgiven.

See also "Investigating the Investigators and the Gill Commission Final Report"

Betsy Combier
Editor

Lawrence Scott III, Agent of the NYC DOE Office of Special Investigations (OSI), Sexually Assaults Teacher Natalya Sokolson-Gordon at Her School, PS. 329 in Coney Island, Brooklyn

The story of the sexual assault on Natalya Sokolson-Gordon by OSI investigator Lawrence I. Scott III during the school day in a room at the school, PS 329 in Coney Island, is shocking indeed. Luckily, everything is on tape and in print, and multiple people have this documentation of Investigator's Scott's absolute stupidity and abusive conduct.  OSI Investigator Lawrence Scott III texted Natalya his sex desires, and I have seen and heard all of it as Natalya's advocate and 3020-a paralegal. We believe that the information below on this blog is important for the public to know.

§130.52 Forcible touching.  A person is guilty of forcible touching when such person intentionally, and for no legitimate purpose, forcibly touches the sexual or other intimate parts of another person for the purpose of degrading or abusing such person; or for the purpose of gratifying the actor’s sexual desire. For the purposes of this section, forcible touching includes squeezing, grabbing or pinching. Forcible touching is a class A misdemeanor.(Eff.11/1/03,Ch.264,L.2003)

Natalya Sokolson-Gordon

In the past several weeks I have spoken with many people, including past and former teachers, parents and even children (parents allowed me to speak with them). For now I
will keep their identities anonymous. All were fearful and upset as they recapped the horrors that lay within the walls of PS 329. They told me about the cruelty and abuse that not only the teachers, but the children are subjected to daily. Many have reported Ms. Marbury but never heard back from anyone.

 

Several teachers were afraid that they too will end up "like Ms. Gordon."

 

PS 329 Principal Salema Dawson Marbury

One teacher told me, "if you were seen speaking to Ms. Gordon or helping her in any way you immediately became a target of harassment". "I don't understand", another teacher said, "Ms.Gordon did so much for Ms. Marbury personally and professionally, they were friends." While another teacher was extremely upset for her colleagues, saying, "I cant believe she (Ms. Marbury) gave so many U ratings to good teachers for no reason , but to cover up her own (Ms. Marbury's) negligence. Some teachers who were already removed from their classes were forced to sit in and clean up dirty, old, 5x4 book closets, all year long. And no one wants to expose what is happening at the school to children with Individualized Education Plans (IEPs). Special needs children have service providers and certified special education teachers, or at least are supposed to, and this is protected by Federal Law. PS 329 does not honor these rights, and special education students are sprinkled throughout the school in classrooms without a certified teacher helping them. New York State, where are you?

I spoke with a child who told me that Ms. Marbury and Ms. Lafontant took her/him and many of her/his classmates out of class and made them write lies about their teacher. Many of them were frightened by Principal Marbury and AP Lafontant who threatened them and told them they had to write what they were told. The children said that they told the investigator what Ms. Marbury and Ms.Lafontant were doing.

However... Where is that report?

Several parents asked for transfers in fear of their children's welfare but were denied by the Dept of Education regional office. One parent told me, "Ms. Marbury treats the parents as if we are some stupid people from the projects who do not know any better, we are not!" "While at other times she threatens us with her husband. I'm not scared, I grew up in Coney Island, I know her husband".

There are many people at fault in this matter, but most alarming is the abuse of authority seen in the actions of Lawrence Scott III. The New York Post editorialized in the December 29, 2013 article about Investigator Scott that this matter will forever undermine the integrity of the DOE’s Office of Special Investigations and change the perception the general public has of the "investigators" who work for the City of New York. This goes all the way to the top, Rose Gill Hearn and the Department of Investigation (DOI). who knew, or should have known, this assault could happen, given past mistakes and abuses of power which have been documented and sent to these chiefs previously. Instead, the Chiefs of these agencies go after the victim of assaults and demand that they keep quiet until they "finish their investigation". This is the reason the rubber rooms were filled with people, all waiting until the Gotcha Squad told them what they were guilty of.

I wrote this in 2009:

The New York City Board of Education seems not to understand the meaning of the word "investigation" as "a systematic, minute, and thorough attempt to learn the facts about something complex or hidden; it is often formal and official". I say this because the NYC BOE just doesn't get it right, much of the time. The agencies involved, Office of Legal Services, Office of Equal Opportunity, and Special Commissioner of Investigation, are all funded by the New York City Board of Education. (See NYC Rubber Room Reporter article News To Use: New York City Government Payroll, FOIL, PERB, Budget, and More" We know what this means. If Joel Klein says "punish the teacher...", then the 'facts' will conveniently fall into the column titled "guilty". The act that the teacher did to be found "guilty" does not really matter, and often the character of the teacher or past history of stellar performance doesn't really impact the conclusion either. By the way, Ms. Sacco told me she has never received a "U" (unsatisfactory) rating for her teaching.

Mr. Dennis Boyles, an investigator paid also by the NYC Board of Education, told a teacher in the presence of his UFT representative that he, Boyles, had been asked by the Principal to come to the school "to find him (the teacher) guilty". His subsequent testimony at this teacher's 3020-a was ridiculous, and embarrassing for OSI, his employer. Here is his payroll entry in the article on this blog "New To Use": Boyles, Dennis; Education Admin, Department of; Annual $66,988 .

  Several years ago I brought two 15 year-old girls to be interviewed by Mr. Dennis Boyles after both were beaten at their school in Brooklyn. Between the two girls' testimonies, Mr. Boyles told me, "listen, it only cost me $5,000 to get my 15-year old daughter out of trouble". I believe he was suggesting that the girls pay $5,000 in order to be found innocent. No one paid anything, and both girls were suspended from their school for beating their attacker, who didn't have a scratch on him. Both girls had been sent to the hospital. I researched the man who hit the two girls and found that he had a long criminal record of harassment at the Brooklyn NYPD. The NYC BOE had allowed him to take a position at Sheepshead Bay High School without checking his criminal record? Was Mr. Dennis Boyles suggesting that I give him money to let the girls go free? Was this a "You help me and I'll help you" scheme?  I believe so.

 If you question or make a complaint to any of the above agencies, you will be investigated, and/or charged with "impeding an investigation" ....whatever that means. You will be put into 3020-a (if you are tenured) or discontinued if you have probationary status. No employee of the DOE should contact an "investigator" for any reason. People should instead give all the information to a third party person who can make the complaint, and also go to the District Attorney. Not the police, who will not file any complaint against a principal. There is nothing fair or impartial about this process. People are being falsely accused, framed, set up, terminated, destroyed, all for no reason other than an administrator decided he/she is not to be in the school for a week, month, or forever. Simple, basta cosi. And I'm just talking about those people who are not guilty of anything. But the NYSUT/UFT "don't talk to them" directive is wrong too. They are not the only people who can be The Gotcha Squad. You can be too.

What bothers the heck out of me is that on January 15, 2013 Salema Marbury put Natalya and Scott in an isolated room on the first floor of PS 329 that had been damaged by Sandy. She put the two of them alone in that room, for Scott to interrogate Natalya. Did she have an agenda in doing this? During the school day?

Victims of harassment inside the Department of Education are victimized over and over again until they give up, resign, retire, or run. That's what happened in this case, almost.

When I was hired by the UFT in August 2007, I was hired to work 14 hours/week on finding out who was in the "rubber rooms" and to help any member who needed assistance. When Mike Mulgrew took over I was told not to email, speak to, or otherwise help anyone, and just sit in my office, as everyone charged was always guilty, and I mustn't get in the way ("of the Department") . Liz Perez, a Brooklyn UFT Special Representative, even told the principal at the 25 Chapel Street rubber room to spy on me, and make sure that I was not giving any advice to members on my weekly visits.

This is why I no longer work for the UFT, and have started my own advocacy organization (ADVOCATZ, part of my company Theater Kids, Inc.). People undergoing an "investigation" should not be left in the dark about what they are being investigated for.

 

Yolanda and Lawrence Scott III

The word "investigator" is a frightening word. If you hear "An investigator is here to speak with you",  this starts, in most people, the heart beating quickly, the palms of your hands getting sweaty, and then fear becomes the taste in your mouth. People who are put into the unfortunate position of being "under investigation" usually do whatever they are told, because they are threatened that there will be horrible consequences to follow if they do not cooperate. This is what Scott made Natalya believe.

 But Natalya told her NYSUT Attorney, and then shockingly received a brush off from him.

In this matter, NYSUT Attorney Mitch Rubenstein (who edits a law blog and makes a very good salary, pictured at left) told Natalya  that her 3020-a charges filed two weeks after she rebuffed Scott in the school (January 15, 2013), had "nothing to do with her 3020-a specifications". Natalya fired him.

 One way to defend yourself against these people is to tape everyone with whom you are in a conversation.

 Just like Natalya did, and Teddy, and David, and hundreds of others.

 

Natalya supports this: "NY is one of 38 states that allows 1st person recording. Meaning that if I am part of the conversation and as long as I know I'm recording, it is totally legal. I do not have to tell the other person. The forged, inappropriate internal investigations based on false accusations and allegations had become a part of my bi-weekly routine.  I had my recorder handy, for anytime and anyplace Principal Salema Marbury, and AP Lisa Lafontant, would yell and scream at me, at the students and at other staff. But Ms. Marbury believed that I was secretly taping, and wanted me to stop. It became so bad that during the principal's so-called "internal investigations", I was not allowed to bring in my pocketbook, a jacket or any garment that covered me. I was practically strip searched at the beginning of every internal investigation which took place in the principal's office. I was asked to show my pockets and turn around. It was quite comical, because I still had recording devices. Even in my sock. And every single internal investigation and abuse towards children and teachers was taped! However Salema Marbury thought otherwise, fortunately. She yelled and screamed, threatened and jumped in my face, during these internal meetings. Many times she threw me out and did not allow me to speak when she did not like my answers. Or I gave answers that contradicted her lies. Answers that pointed out her negligence with the children. I have over 107 recordings. Funny though, the disciplinary letters for file and the corporal punishment allegations that were falsely written by Salema Marbury and AP Lafontant were never based on the content of the actual investigation, which is available in audio format, but were based on lies, events and instances that never took place. Lies! ...that for some reason went unnoticed by the numerous complaints that I made to SCI."

 

Ive seen this happen to women charged with all kinds of allegations of misconduct throughout the 10 years I have been watching this process (3020-a) and these people (the "investigators"). Recently, Scott said that the charges against Natalya are "irrelevant" to the assault. SCI was given all the text messages and audio messages from/to Scott by Natalya in October, 2013, when she went to their offices at 80 Maiden Lane to file a complaint against Scott. He resigned (or was fired).

I first met Natalya on December 3, 2013, when I decided to attend the 3020-a of my friend Francesco Portelos at 49-51 Chambers Street, 6th Floor. Francesco also, by the way, was threatened by "investigator Scott":

 

"When I found he wanted to speak to me in private, I started recording. I don’t like doing it,
but I do not trust investigators. It’s a good thing I did, because if I didn’t, people may not believe that he threatened me.

Click Here for Audio

Not a “nice guy”? What does that mean?" 

On December 3 I was speaking to another person who was a friend of Francesco's, when suddenly a woman I had never met before but who looked very stressed sat down and

said "I'm so sorry to bother you, I hate to interrupt, but I heard you talking about tapes, audio, video, and I have some of those." Boy, did she. Turns out she taped the principal, and all her meetings, for a year, as well as Lawrence Scott doing some very improper things. The audio of Lawrence Scott trying to get her to touch his penis is particularly disgusting. And then there are the texts. Many of them. Natalya hired me on the spot to

help her. I successfully put off proceeding with the resignation.

The woman told me her name was Natalya Sokolson, and she taught for 20 years. I asked her what her case was about and who her attorney was, she told me that she had fired NYSUT Attorney Mitch Rubenstein, and then the sad tale began. That evening I began to look into the school and people involved. After speaking with many teachers and parents who are or were at the school (all of whom will remain anonymous) I was particularly shocked at the street language of Principal Salema Marbury, and the manner in which she put revenge before the health, safety and welfare of the children in her building. A parent says that her child's 5th grade teacher is often drunk in class. The principal has done nothing about it.

Natalya was hired by Principal Salema Marbury to teach at PS 329 in 2004. Salema was friends with Natalya's sister-in-law, Tina Murlin-Sokolson.

Salema Marbury (left) and Tina Murlin-Sokolson

Natalya was assigned  a position in PS 329 as a computer cluster teacher and

she and Salema became very close friends.

 

P.S. 329 is a sexed-up school, more like
a 'Peyton Place'. I call it that because it seems that too many teachers are sleeping with too many wives and husbands of other teachers and administrators. We had to make a chart to keep all the sex partners straight. Take the
Principal, for instance. She was Salema Dawson until she married the PS 329 Parent Coordinator, who is now the Guidance Counselor at PS 39, Don Marbury. My sources tell me that they had to "do their thing" in the school building because he was married at the time.

 

Salema's husband is the brother of sports star Stephon Marbury. Several sources at the school told me that Don Marbury told staff at the school, when he and Salema Dawson were dating, 'please do not try to contact me for half an hour, at least - I will be "banging the principal."'  They married and he left the school. He went to PS 39, where he is a Guidance Counselor. PS 329 sold his bother's brand, Starbury, and uniforms to the parents and children (see pictures below).

and,

On or about July 2009 Natalya helped set up and decorate Footprints cafe in Coney Island for Salema's bridal shower. On Aug 9, 2009 she attended and photographed Salema's and Don's wedding at the Riviera. Here are some of Natalya's photos:

                                                  Salema and Don Marbury

                                                      
 

She even photographed the bride at home prior to wedding. In Sept 2009 Salema brought Natalya back gifts from their honeymoon. Then, Natalya's brother found out about the affair his wife Tina Murlin Sololson was having with the gym teacher. Natalya was accused of telling her brother about the affair, starting the harassment by Salema.

 

PS 329 Principal Salema Dawson Marbury and husband Don E. Marbury

 On March 6, 2012, Natalya's students were on a school bus outside the school waiting to start a trip to the Staten Island Chocolate factory when a man in a car tried to drive by the bus. Natalya ran over to the car to stop him, and she fell and badly hurt herself, but waited to get treatment until the trip was over so that the children would not be prevented from going. A line of duty injury (LODI) claim was submitted and was denied. Then Natalya received a letter of a 3020a regarding time and attendance resulting from the principal denying her LODI.

Young Entrepreneurs Program Flyer

On March 13, 2012 Natalya was questioned about her concern about illegal fundraising through the Young Entrepreneurs Program (YEP).  All files and receipts were taken from her with out proper accountability. All money made during the sales were taken from her and never seen again. Students lessons and feedback were stolen out of her room by teacher Ms. Smith who Natalya caught going into her classroom with an administrative key(opens all doors) and looking through her files. The air conditioners promised in the flyer at right were never seen.

On March 14, 2012 Natalya had a UFT Meeting with Judy Gerowitz regarding concerns in the school building regarding the
handling of situations by Salema. Immediately after the meeting several teachers told Ms. Marbury of what was said in the meeting and Marbury began to immediately harass Natalya.

The parent of the missing child (see article at left) told me that her daughter was given to another parent, and Marbury did not seem to take control of the situation. The parent, Ms. Torres, went to the Department of Education to transfer her daughter, and they told her they had lengthy procedures to follow. She went to the media and her daughter was transferred out the next day.

At the April 24, 2012 Time and attendance hearing Natalya was fined $3000. However, the Principal tampered with her personnel file and withheld LODI information. The LODI in question was overturned in October of 2013. Natalya's salary and days were to be returned to her, but have not been returned, yet. (I and Natalya went to see Michelle Nacht at OPI the end of December).

On April 25, 2012 Natalya was given a letter to file for using the bathroom during the 37.5 min after school program, and leaving her 4 children with a teacher next door for 2 min.
The teachers in the building were horrified by this rule, and one teacher told me, "Marbury said it was only for [Natalya]." She was given another letter for the same crime on May 6, 2012.

April 27, 2012: There was an incident of a missing child and items stolen from the classroom,  as well as children accessing a closed classroom with an administrative key.
Natalya questioned the children and explained the concern for their safety to them and
then reported the incident to AP Lisa Lafontant assistant principal.


Anita Garcia, former principal of PS 329, left; Salema Marbury, Principal, third from right;
AP Lisa Lafontant, second from right

Lafontant accompanied Marbury as she went around the school questioning and telling Y workers to write statements against Natalya if they valued their jobs, to turn the situation against Natalya for being verbally abusive and embarrassing the children in front of everyone. One parent I spoke to was very angry about this and her child was very upset, and she refused to let her child participate.

During this time OSI Investigator Thomas Rickey and then Dennis Boyles, came to investigate Principal Marbury on misappropriation of funds, stealing school time, and
using teachers to do personal favors for her during school time. The YEP program was linked to illegal fundraisers and missing money. No report has ever been seen from OSI. After Natalya answered the questions Ms Marbury went around telling people that she
wrote the letter to OSI, however the letter contained instances that she had no clue about.

Natalya was the schools photographer, video person, tech teacher and web site developer, as well as many other roles. At a UFT meeting on May 15, 2012, with UFT Representative Judy Gerowitz and the PS 329 Chapter Leader, regarding the disclosure of her personal business in a staff meeting and several other issues concerning Natalya's allegations and harassment, Dean Barbara Straughter asked Natalya to take pictures in the auditorium. Immediately following this meeting the principal, Salema, called Natalya's classroom during a math lesson and she was yelling at her about taking pictures. At 1:45PM Ms Marbury stormed into the classroom and began to tell at the children about service points towards graduation. Alleging that a parent complained that their child didn't want to do service she continued to yell "who told their parent that? Oh you're too good to clean?" She then went around the room yelling at each student and proceeded to degrade one student by calling her spoiled and asking her if she was too good to clean. Salema then snatched the school camera that Natalya always used from her desk and left the room yelling and being verbally abusive to Natalya in front of the children. "I could not finish my lesson because the kids were upset and the student was hysterically crying," Natalya told me.

I looked Barbara Straughter
up, and it seems that NYSED has no record of her being certified to be a teacher or a
Dean in a school from August 2012 until February 1, 2014. (See picture at left of Educator Lookup on the NYSED website)

PS 329 has no SAVE Room.
On May 22, 2012 Natalya was summoned to a disciplinary meeting once again. Ms
Marbury had A PTA parent write a letter of lies about her, promising the parent that she would get the child into a better JHS than the one assigned. That same day  Natalya reported to the UFT that on May 14, 2012 Salema called a new safety Officer "Uncle
Ben" during a staff meeting. Natalya reported her. Salema then told security that Natalya could not be in the lobby because the parents said that Natalya dances in a local bar and that they are disgusted by seeing her in the lobby. During the meeting, when Natalya asked Salema why she was telling people that she stripped at a location bar., ."She yelled and threw me out if the meeting." Disciplinary letter to file given to Natalya on May 31, 2012.

On May 30, 2012, a child was called out of lunch and told to write a statement about
Natalya by AP Lafontant, but the child said his father would not let him write false things about his teacher. Natalya reported this to Ms. Brown, the Children's First Network (CFN) leader.

The next day Natalya was served with new disciplinary charges and a letter to file after lunch. She read it during her prep period right before last period. On May 31, when during instruction Natalya lost consciousness and when the paramedics arrived, the paramedics called ms Gordon's brother at work off her cell phone, he was listed as primary contact via iPhone emergency app. When her brother, Mr. Sokolson (who had 2 children as students
in the building, and his wife Ms. Tina Murlin-Sokolson  is still at the school) arrived at the ps329 building, after signing in at the front desk and obtaining a pass, he proceeded to the main office. Once there he asked Ms. Anita Reynolds , the secretary on the whereabout of his sister. At which point Ms. Marbury ran out of her office yelling and threatening Mr. Sokolson  to get out of the building, without providing any information on her whereabouts. (Natalya was still being cared for by the paramedics and was still on the floor in the school building). Ms. Marbury threw him out of the building and filed a police report against him. Fortunately he also recorded the whole incident, however when he reported this to SCI he was told that they gave the case to OSI who then turned it over to Ms. DeMola superintendent, who then told Natalya's brother that the case was closed and and no
further information nor explanation was given. No one even bothered to listen to the audio.

 Natalya was hospitalized. Upon returning to school she was denied LODI. Natalya was served with a disciplinary letter for insubordination claiming that she failed to sign and return the disciplinary letter given to her on may 31, 2012 as she was being wheeled out of the school building by paramedics and taken to the hospital in an ambulance.

In June 2012 an auction was held at the school, and no one recalls the money ever being seen or discussed. The principal would not allow any discussion of where the money went or was used, or the school budget at SLT meetings. The Chapter Leader transferred out.

 On June 19,  2012, another teacher got upset at a little girl for asking for more food and yanked her really hard by the arm. Upon entering her classroom Natalya immediately called the office and was transferred to Ms Straughter. After telling her of the incident Ms Straughter sent the incident form via a student to Natalya's class with a blank incident form. She, and two other people, Ms Schatzman(para) and the cafeteria staff lady Betty wrote down what had occured. During her prep which was next period, she made copies and submitted her report to three people, including ms Marbury. After a few days Natalya was informed by the mother that ms Marbury had called and told her that Natalya pulled her daughters arm and that they were going to remove me from the building. The mother told ms Marbury, "Ms Gordon did NOT do that to my child, another teacher did. I took my child to the precinct and filed a police report and my daughter told the detective who did it".

Ms Marbury then filed an OSI REPORT that the reason she accused Natalya was because Natalya had failed to give her the incident report.
 
On June 26, 2012, during summer clean up, while carrying her things to her car, Natalya was approached by two men who threatened her not to come back into the building in September. When the school safety officer (who was already outside by the location of the incident), walked the frightened Ms. Gordon back inside the buildIng and to the main office,  she (Ms. Gordon) was immediately thrown out if the building by Ms. Marbury. Ms. Gordon then went directly to the precinct to file a report.

In October, 2012 Natalya was summoned to a disciplinary meeting, for the June 26, 2012 incident, where Marbury now claimed Natalya was lying and in a confidential OEO report dated March 11, 2013  Marbury claimed that she was told by a wittness, "whose name Marbury could not recall" that Natalya was not threatened",(as written in the Confidential OEO notes) and after falsifying a NYC police report against Natalya, Marbury charged Natalya with a disciplinary letter to file. In this letter Marbury accused Natalya of "inappropriate behavior" in alleging that Marbury was responsible for these two men threatening her in order to "get back" at Principal Marbury for Principal Marbury's discipline of Ms. Sokolson-Gordon (OEO Case #0084/13, p. 4).

Oct 3, 2012: Natalya was given a third grade class she had never had before (she was supposed to have grade 5) , and as soon as the lesson began, AP Lafontant came in, telling her it was a walk through.  After several minutes she left. The next day Natalya received a U "unsatisfactory" rating for the walk-through (which in reality was a "fly-by").

On October 17, 2012 a student began to throw objects and Natalya made many telephone calls for help (PS 329 does not have a SAVE room), but no one came to help. The child refused to stop and began to hit, curse, and scratch Natalya. A para was walking by and attempted to assist but the child ran off.  She called the office once more and within a few minutes the safety officer came up and went to look for the child. Natalya filled out an incident report and called his mom, then gave the report to Ms Marbury and one to AP Lafontant.

A week later a student gave Natalya a manila envelope, which she left in her classroom
and did not look inside. Soon after, hurricane Sandy displaced everyone in the school. In January 2013 Natalya was summoned to a disciplinary meeting regarding the out of control child and was told that she was found guilty of pushing the child out of the room. She was given several witness statements. However when she found the original manila envelope, this contained student statements written in October which were totally different than the statements written by same students in January. The latter version became a charge for 3020-a. Natalya kept the original statements.

Nov 15, 2012: a student attempted to jump down the stairs while screaming "I am going to kill myself". Another teacher was coming up the stairs and tried to prevent this act, but Natalya told him she would carry the child to the office located two flights up, and asked him to take care of her class. He agreed. Upon entering the office Natalya asked for assistance and told Ms Straughter what happened. Suddenly Salema came from around the corner of the office, the child saw her, and started screaming. Salema grabbed the child by the legs and started pulling her into the office telling her to shut up and telling her "not in this building, you will not do this in this building" but the child wouldn't let go of the door frame as Salema was pulling her by her legs into the room. Natalya, afraid that if she let go of the child the child would hit the floor with her head. Natalya finally got the child to let go of the door and Salema pulled her into her office and slammed the door shut while yelling for the child to shut her mouth.

Natalya immediately wrote an incident report and gave it to AP Lafontant who then gave her a school form to write it in. She filled out the form and handed it in. Natalya reported this incident to OSI. (Dennis Boyles came to the school building in Feb 2013 to investigate and question the other teacher involved, but no report has been seen from OSI). On November 25, 2012 the teacher involved as well others were asked to write false statements about what happened. They refused, however, Salema Marbury never reported the incident
 properly, and therefore endangered the welfare of a special needs child. Marbury charged

As written in NY Post :On Jan. 31, Gordon was charged with yelling at and grabbing several students the previous year...
 

From December 21, 2012 to January 17, 2013 Natalya was given many disciplinary letters and unsatisfactory observation reports for observations that never took place. No one at the school or at the UFT would listen to her growing fear and despair.

Principal Salema Marbury in front of her self portrait on the mural outside of  PS 329

On or about January 30-31 2013 Natalya was removed from her teaching duties and the school. She was put into the rubber room on the 12th floor of 49-51 Chambers Street where Michelle Nacht works, for a few days. Then she was moved to 65 Court Street, where Investigator Scott worked, and then Petrides Complex in Staten Island. On January 30, 2013 Salema Marbury filed a complaint on behalf of herself and Parent Coordinator Leah Depena with the DOE Office of Equal Opportunity ("OEO") charging Natalya with sexual harassment. A clear example of Salema Marbury's psychosis is what she told OEO Investigator Victoria A. Ajibade, Esq.: that from the start, she and Natalya never interacted much, that Natalya always wanted to "do things her way", that Natalya was "unstable" and "coo-coo crazy". Principal Marbury remarked that "Ms. Sokolson-Gordon is the stalker type...[and] Marbury denied that Ms. Sokolson-Gordon was the photographer at [her] Marbury's wedding..." saying "I hired a paid photography company to photograph my wedding...I don't care who messes with whom, so long as it's not with my husband!" (OEO report #C-0084/13, dated March 11, 2013, written by Victoria A. Ajibade, Esq., and signed by Ms. Ajibade, OEO Executive Director Mecca Santana, and Courtenaye Jackson-Chase, General Counsel to Chancellor Dennis Walcott).

Everyone at the school knows that this statement by Salema is a lie.

I was told that in November 2013,
Judy Gerowitz UFT District 21 Rep, (pictured at right) came into the PS 329 building for a  UFT meeting with the staff. PS329 did not have a chapter leader in the building at the time and Judy was there to represent the staff. She signed in at the front desk and showed her ID to the safety officer and as she began to make her way to the main office to see the principal (a procedure done by UFT personnel  to inform the principal that they are in the building) she was stopped and told that she had to be escorted to the office and could not walk through down the hall alone. Ms. Gerowitz felt disrespected and did not see the need for an escort, because she has always (for many years ) come into the building without any  escort. Since Ms. Gerowitz is not a stranger to the school building, she proceeded to the main office to inform Principal Marbury that she was in the building to conduct a UFT MEETING. Upon entering the main office Ms. Marbury began yelling at Judy in front of other staff and parents. Judy asked Marbury to please lower her voice  and if they could please talk in her (Marbury's) office. Ms. Marbury became more irate and yelled "absolutely not!" Judy then left the office and proceeded to the meeting. The incident was then reported to superintendent. Principal Marbury has barred Judy from entering the school.

Meanwhile, on or about September 2012, OSI Investigator Lawrence Scott came to PS 329 to investigate an incident in which the principal claimed that Natalya had interfered with her internal investigation and had collected statements from students. Mr. Scott gave her his card. 

On November 14, 2012 Natalya was summoned to Mr. Scott's office at 65 Court Street along with her UFT Representative to discuss the incident where a student's arm was dislocated by another teacher. Principal Marbury filled out an incident report saying that it was Natalya who harmed the student. However,  the mother had a police report saying the perpetrator was NOT Natalya, and Natalya told Mr. Scott that the incident as detailed by the Principal was false. She and Scott discussed other events involving Salema at the school which
were improper.

Natalya gave these details: "Later the same day, Scott texted me and then called me to say that he liked me and wanted to help me. He said he "understood my situation" and 'would be willing to help me because he didn't like my principal and she didn't seem like a nice person'.

The texts became extremely sexually explicit immediately. Mr. Scott told me that he was going to come to my school and have sex with me in my classroom. On Dec 6 he came to my school building and I got scared that he was there. I was trying to avoid him. He made this a big deal and got extremely upset at me as shown by the texts he sent to me at that time.  We also spoke via phone, and then he said that since I got so nervous and scared, I wasn't who he thought I was and he can't help me anymore. I'm a liability and he's not going to risk his job helping me since I got so scared. He then told me that he's going to write his report now since I was scared. He was really upset. I had no phone contact with him after December 12. He called several times but I didn't return the calls.

On January 15 he came back to my building. We were ushered into a room by the principal's secretary which was ruined by Sandy,  with no lights and no heat, that was isolated from the rest of the building on the first floor. During his conversation with me he told me that he was hoping that by the time he leaves he would be able to un-substantiate the allegations against me, while he was touching my breasts and placing his hands between my legs. The meeting was recorded. I left the room after he got up and asked me to touch him, and became more and more aggressive. I thought that he would help me with the situation at the school. I was afraid for my life and career. I was told to be quiet.

On or about  February 22-23 I was served papers from PS 329 for alleged sexual misconduct.

I made a visit to SCI on Maiden Lane or about October 2-3 2013 to make a complaint against Investigator Lawrence Scott III. I spoke with Investigator Jeffrey Anderson and a woman (I do not remember her name at this moment). Senior Investigator Thomas Fennell told me that he had the Chief on the phone and said, "You are in the right, even if you took off all of your clothes, he [Scott] still took advantage of you and misused his power and his position". All the texts and the audio from my phone were videotaped and copied by SCI. Before leaving the room I was told by Investigator Anderson that I was NOT allowed to speak to anyone about this, even my NYSUT Attorney.

From October 28 to November 4, 2013, I was hospitalized involuntarily, in a psych ward as a result of the extreme stress and depression that the sexual assault caused me.  On November 20 SCI Investigator Jeffrey Anderson and another man who did not identify himself came to Petrides School where I was re-assigned. They told me that I was named the subject of an investigation, as a result of the complaint that I had filed against Mr. Scott. I was told that Mr. Scott had resigned."

 

So, that's why Natalya was exhibiting the very stressed state of depression and despair that I saw when I met her at 49-51 Chambers Street 6th Floor, on December 3, 2013. No one had listened to her story, and if they did, like Mitch Rubenstein and the SCI investigators, they chose to keep her believing that she was not the victim, but some kind of culprit or partner in all of this. On December 3 Natalya was going to resign from her position as a teacher, not knowing where to go or who to turn to for guidance.

Now she is going to fight and has the audio tapes and texts to prove what she says. I, for one, believe every word.

Betsy Combier

betsy.combier@gmail.com
advocatz77@gmail.com

Mom, Fearing Abuse, Puts Recorder in Autistic Daughter's Book Bag