NY City Councilman Ruben Wills is Convicted of Public Corruption, Sentencing is August 10, 2017

Well, finally Ruben Wills has been convicted. I wonder what MS226 Principal Rushell White thinks of this? And, does she have the $750 Louis Vuitton handbag?

Betsy Combier
betsy.combier@gmail.com
Editor, NYC Rubber Room Reporter
Editor, Parentadvocates.org
Editor, New York Court Corruption
Editor, National Public Voice
Editor, NYC Public Voice
Editor, Inside 3020-a Teacher Trials

City Councilman Convicted of Stealing Thousands in Public Funds

Ruben Wills is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 10. He faces up to seven years in prison.

Queens Councilman Ruben Wills found guilty of stealing over $30G in taxpayer money

Queens Councilman Ruben Wills was convicted Thursday of five counts against him in a corruption trial, which included charges of stealing more than $30,000 in taxpayer money.

Wills, who was accused of using the money to buy food, clothes, gas and a $750 Louis Vuitton handbag, buried his head in his hands as the jury read its verdict at the end of an 11-day trial in Queens Criminal Court.

The jury found Wills guilty of one count of a scheme to defraud, two counts of grand larceny and two counts of filing a false instrument. The jury acquitted Wills on a single charge of filing false business records.

The conviction automatically expels Wills from the council.

His bio has already been removed from the council website.

"Ruben Wills' crimes were a shameful violation of the public trust," said Attorney General Schneiderman, whose office prosecuted the case. "Ruben Wills stole taxpayer dollars to buy fancy purses and clothes for himself and his friends. New Yorkers deserved better."

Prosecutors said Wills used public matching funds from his 2009 council campaign to pay $11,500 to fund a shell company created to translate and distribute campaign literature that was never given out.

The money was instead redirected to a nonprofit corporation that Wills controlled and used to make personal purchases including the handbag, which he bought at Macy's. Wills, a former state Senate staffer, also used money to shop at Nordstrom and Home Depot, officials said.

"Ruben Wills betrayed the trust of all New Yorkers when he abused his position in the State Senate to steal thousands of dollars from the hard working taxpayers of New York for his own selfish gain," said Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.

"Serving in elected office requires honesty and integrity and today's conviction makes clear that Ruben Wills is unfit to be a member of the City Council,"

During the trial, the black councilman and his attorney said questions from the prosecutor about a possible romance between the married Wills and his chief of staff were racially charged and out of bounds.

"It was just to muddy up Ruben to the jurors," Kevin O'Donnell told the Daily News before the verdict. "They wouldn't have done this with a white politician."

The councilman, who was elected in 2010 and indicted four years later, faces up to seven years in prison.

NYC Comptroller Cites The NYC Department of Education For Not Accounting For Thousands of Missing Computers, Tablets and Laptops

I would add to the quote above: "...or for stealing public property."

If public funds have paid for 50 computers to be given to your school, who is to point the finger at you, the principal/AP if you take one home? No one. I am not saying that all principals have thought about doing this, but I am saying that there are principals who have taken public property for themselves, or others.

See Stuart Possner's case. and,

Five NYC Department of Education Former and Current DOE Network Leaders Exposed For Violating P-Card Rules

There are many more.

On Thursday July 20, 2017 City Councilman Ruben Wills was convicted of public corruption:
City Councilman Convicted of Stealing Thousands in Public Funds
I wonder how MS226 Principal Rushell White feels about that.

MS 226 Principal Rushell White Key Words: Checks From Ruben Wills

Did Rushell White get the $750 handbag made by Louis Vuitton? People I spoke to at MS 226 say yes, she did.

Or, if a member of your staff asks where a missing computer (or two or three) may be, you, as the principal can charge him/her with taking it, and if this person doesn't have tenure, he/she can be discontinued immediately following the 60-day notice; or, if this person has tenure, then it is time for a 3020-a, with other charges padding the list of Specifications to make sure the person is terminated.

So you, principal/AP/favored staff member dont have to worry about anything. Just enjoy your spanking new computer.

Parents and non-staff members are also sometimes on the take:
Stuyvesant High School Parents' Association is Cited For Financial Fraud and Discrimination

or in danger because they say something:
Booker T. Washington Middle School 54, Grievance Brings Retaliation

How many teachers have been told suddenly that they are re-assigned, and must leave the building, leaving all their stuff accumulated over many years, in their classrooms, never to be seen again. Sometimes the property of the re-assigned gets put into a room where staff can go through the items and take what they want.

If this happens, go to the police, make a complaint. Pronto. Then tell the Principal you need your stuff, and go to the UFT and tell them .

Betsy Combier
 betsy.combier@gmail.com
Editor, NYC Rubber Room Reporter
Editor, Parentadvocates.org
Editor, New York Court Corruption
Editor, National Public Voice
Editor, NYC Public Voice
Editor, Inside 3020-a Teacher Trials

Scott Stringer

New Comptroller Stringer Audit: Thousands of DOE Computers, Laptops, and Tablets Missing or Not Properly Accounted For

JULY 19, 2017

In a sample of just nine locations, DOE failed to account for almost 35 percent of machines

Over 1,800 computers, tablets, and other technology were missing from sampled schools

(New York, NY) – A new Comptroller Stringer investigation has found the New York City Department of Education is missing more than 1,800 computers, laptops, and tablets, while more than 3,500 were not properly accounted for. In a sample of just eight schools and one agency office, the Comptroller found 35 percent of approximately 14,000 machines were not properly accounted for.

The follow-up audit released today comes two and a half years after a December 2014 audit by Comptroller Stringer that highlighted how the DOE could not locate 1,817 computers and identified another nearly 400 laptops and tablets that were sitting in storage, unopened and unused.

The Comptroller’s new investigation today revealed that the DOE has made no real progress in managing its technology inventory in the years since. Auditors found:

• An additional 1,816 laptops, computers, and tablets are now missing—from just nine DOE locations audited;
• 3,541 devices that were or should have been at those nine locations were not listed in DOE’s inventory — increasing the risk that DOE equipment can be stolen undetected; and
• The DOE continues to maintain the same decentralized inventory records for its technology equipment that were found inaccurate two and a half years ago and remain so.

“I’m calling on the DOE to do a top-to-bottom review of all of its computers, laptops, and monitors. When we should be preparing our kids for the great age of technology, when coding is changing the world, the DOE is losing and misplacing its tech equipment. This isn’t just a massive mess – it’s wrong. When laptops and tablets go missing, or are stored in closets gathering dust, children and teachers are let down. The ineptitude by the bureaucracy is resulting in wasted resources, and it undermines our ability to prepare our children for the future,” New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer said. “The DOE has known about these problems since we audited this very issue over two years ago – and the agency has made no real progress in addressing them. We constantly hear the same excuses from the agency – that monitoring is in place, that systems are functioning the way they should, and that the public should trust that everything is fine. As this audit once again shows, taxpayer dollars are exposed to waste, fraud, or abuse – and it’s coming at our kids’ expense. This has to change.”

Between July 2014 and March 2016, the DOE entered into $209.9 million worth of contracts for computers, laptops, monitors, and tablets with Apple, Lenovo, and CDW Government, LLC. The items purchased through these three contracts included:

• Desktops computers that cost between $332 and $2,290;
• Laptops that cost between $167 and $2,339;
• Tablets that cost between $251 and $900; and
• Computer monitors that cost between $94 and $452.

Comptroller Stringer’s December 2014 audit found that the DOE was unable to properly manage its technology hardware due in large part to its decentralized inventory system. Today’s follow-up audit found that those failures have continued.

Currently, more than 2,000 individual “site administrators” across the school system are responsible for maintaining and updating their own computer inventories, which are never reconciled with the DOE’s central purchasing database or its Asset Management System (AMS). As a result, the DOE has no way of knowing whether all of the items it purchased are properly accounted for at school locations. These systemic failures expose the City to an increased risk of waste, fraud, and abuse.

In the earlier audit, the Comptroller recommended the DOE establish a centralized inventory system — possibly through the existing AMS database, which already contains information on hardware purchased by the DOE. Today’s follow-up audit showed the results of DOE’s rejection of that and other recommendations — still more missing and unused equipment — and revealed that the DOE had not even tried to find 1,090 of the 1,817 computers that were identified as missing in the December 2014 audit.

Findings from the follow-up audit include:

The DOE’s records remain inaccurate and incomplete

The DOE failed to properly account for 4,993 of its 14,329 pieces of computer hardware — or 34.9 percent of the total — at the nine sampled sites. Of those 4,993 items:

• Auditors looked for — but DOE was unable to produce — 1,816 pieces of computer hardware during physical inspections; and
• Auditors found that 3,541 pieces of computer hardware were not listed in the locations’ inventory records.

No centralized system for monitoring inventory

The previous audit recommended that the DOE revise its Standard Operating Procedures to record all computer hardware purchases in AMS and ensure that annual inventory counts are conducted and reconciled with the information in AMS. Yet, the DOE continues to refuse to implement that recommendation, citing costs, despite the potential for fraud and wasteful spending.

The DOE did not monitor recordkeeping procedures at schools and administrative sites

DOE fails to ensure that its inventory records are accurate and complete. The Department’s unmonitored, decentralized inventory system — in which site administrators from each of DOE’s 2,278 sites are responsible for maintaining and updating inventory records — are never checked against central databases of purchases. This puts computer hardware at a higher risk of being lost, stolen, and wasted.

The DOE accounted for only 12.9% of the items that were previously identified as missing

In today’s audit, the DOE accounted for only 234 of the 1,817 missing pieces of computer hardware identified in the previous audit — or 12.9 percent. The findings are broken down below.

• The DOE reported that it did not attempt to locate 1,090 computer items, most of which were listed in AMS as “location unknown.”
• Of the remaining 727 pieces of missing hardware identified in the 2014 audit, the DOE reported that it had located 353 items at eight sites.
• However, when the Comptroller’s office attempted to inspect 188 of those items at two of the sites, DOE could account for only 69 of them, or 36.7 percent.
  • The DOE claimed it had identified 162 of the missing items at the sampled DOE administrative office, but when auditors visited, they only found 69 of them.
  • Although the DOE claimed that 26 pieces of computer hardware were located at a single school, the DOE did not provide the auditors with access to that school to verify their claims.

The DOE did not provide schools and other decentralized sites with sufficient guidance and support to ensure compliance with its inventory guidelines

During interviews with DOE staff at nine sampled sites, auditors were told that they were not aware of — and did not receive access to — inventory training, AMS data, and other vendor inventory services, all of which should have been in place to help properly track computer equipment.

To address the issues that were identified in the earlier audit and the persistent problems uncovered in the follow-up audit, the Comptroller’s office issued 19 recommendations, emphasizing the need for the DOE to establish a single centralized system for monitoring its hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of  computer hardware.

New York Schools Faulted Again for Failing to Keep Track of Computers

By KATE TAYLORJULY 19, 2017, NY TIMES

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Three years ago, an audit by the New York City comptroller’s office found that because of “grossly inaccurate” record-keeping, the city’s Education Department could not account for 1,817 computers it owned.

On Wednesday, Scott M. Stringer, the comptroller, issued a follow-up audit and said things had not improved. Mr. Stringer rebuked the department for its “ineptitude” in keeping track of computers and tablets it had bought for schools and offices.

The recommendations the comptroller’s office made in 2014 included creating a centralized inventory system for computers and tablets and routinely monitoring record-keeping procedures at schools and department offices to ensure that their inventories were accurate. Neither recommendation was adopted. The department said maintaining a centralized inventory was not practical.

For the latest audit, the comptroller’s office examined the computer inventory at eight schools and one administrative office. The comptroller’s office found that 4,993 out of 14,329 pieces of computer hardware at those locations were not properly accounted for, and that 1,816 pieces were not found by the auditors at all. At Fort Hamilton High School in Brooklyn, for example, more than one in five pieces of computer hardware listed in purchasing records, school inventory records and other city documents were not physically accounted for.

As for the 1,817 computers that were unaccounted for in the earlier audit, the comptroller’s office said the department had accounted for 234, or 13 percent.

“We constantly hear the same excuses from the agency — that monitoring is in place, that systems are functioning the way they should and that the public should trust that everything is fine,” Mr. Stringer said in a statement. “As this audit once again shows, taxpayer dollars are exposed to waste, fraud or abuse — and it’s coming at our kids’ expense.”

The Education Department criticized the new audit, saying its findings were “fundamentally flawed and unreliable.” The department faulted the comptroller’s office for relying on the department’s Asset Management System, which is primarily used to track hardware warranty and service data, as a central inventory of hardware that had been bought.

The comptroller’s office noted that the department had instructed schools to use data from the Asset Management System as a basis for creating and updating their own inventory records.

The new audit covered the two years from July 1, 2014, to June 30, 2016. The department bought more than $200 million worth of computers and tablets during that period.

Nearly 2,000 technology devices for students are missing

Ruben Wills Goes On Trial

City Councilman Ruben Wills was indicted by the attorney general’s office in 2014 for pocketing
$33,000 in grant money

If you believe the newspapers, and think that the money that is unaccounted for or in the wrong place due to Councilman Ruben Wills is due to his "carelessness", then I have a bridge to sell you.

And, Mr. Wills gave alot of money to MS 226 Principal Rushell White. What is the full story there?

Betsy Combier
betsy.combier@gmail.com
Editor, NYC Rubber Room Reporter
Editor, Parentadvocates.org
Editor, New York Court Corruption
Editor, National Public Voice
Editor, The NYC Public Voice

Defense claims Queens Councilman Ruben Wills was not stealing government money — he was just 'careless'

A city councilman was careless with his bookkeeping - not stealing over $30,000 in taxpayer funds and grant money for two non-profits, according to his defense attorney.

"Carelessness is all this is - carelessness," said attorney Kevin O'Donnell during opening statements in Queens Supreme Court on Wednesday for Councilman Ruben Wills.

Wills was indicted by the attorney general's office in 2014 for pocketing $19,000 in grant money - approved by former state Senator Shirley Huntley in 2008 - from the state's Office of Children Family Services for his non-profit NY 4 Life.

A jury of five women and seven men will determine if Wills schemed to defraud the government, committed grand larceny and falsified business documents to hide the scheme.

Ohio pol suggests EMS stop responding to overdoses to save money

If convicted, Wills faces up to seven years in prison for the top charge.

"No one will say $33,000 of services weren't given for New York 4 Life. Not everyone looks at their accountant's work ... if you can't find receipts that's not a crime, it's not a crime to be careless," said O'Donnell.

NY 4 Life was created in 2006 to provide services for single parent homes in Southeast Queens. O'Donnell argued that Wills didn't receive the grant until 2010 and the organization still conducted breakfasts, luncheons and anti-childhood obesity campaigns.

"They aren't free," said O'Donnell.

Assistant Attorney General Travis Hill said he intends to prove that Wills not only spent the funds at department stores Macy's, Toys 'R Us, Century 21 and Nordstrom, he paid a campaign worker with the grant money.

"Michelle Davis will testify that she was paid by checks from New York 4 Life's bank account. Ruben Wills used checks for New York 4 Life and in the memo wrote it was for data entry for an obesity campaign. Davis will testify she didn't know what New York 4 Life even was," said Hill during opening statements.

Prosecutors called three witnesses from Macy's, Nordstrom's and Home Depot to comb through the receipts allegedly associated with Wills' purchases.

Purchases made at Macy's didn't detail the purchase for $749.51. Wills's Nordstrom bill, meanwhile, was for a men's dress shirt, cufflinks, two women's and boy's shirt.

Wills is also accused of taking $19,000 of the $30,000 in grant money and $11,500 in campaign matching funds during his first City Council race in 2009 for services with Micro Targeting, for translating and distributing campaign literature.

Prosecutors charge that Wills had an associate redirect the funds for Micro Targeting to NY 4 Life.

“Elected office doesn’t give anyone license to break the law, or avoid the consequences. With trust in government falling, it's all the more vital to send a clear message: public corruption will not be tolerated in New York,” said Amy Spitalnick, a spokeswoman for the state Attorney General’s Office.

MS 226 Principal Rushell White Key Words: Checks From Ruben Wills

Under the business model for education, Rushell White, Principal of MS 226, can take all the money she wants from Ruben Wills, and do whatever she wants with it.

There is no Board of Directors to oversee what happens right, or wrong. That is the mistake that has changed the face of education in America, and certainly New York City.

Principals have too much unchecked power. The Principal's Union, CSA, defends the rights of their members to have total power over their school.

When I reported the $225,000 missing grant money at PS 6 (Carmen Farina was Principal) from the Annenberg Challenge For the Arts,  to Annenberg in or about 2001, their final conclusion after all the grants had been assessed, was that the money should not have been given to principals without safeguards for its' use. Without safeguards in place, too many principals did not use the money correctly, as the grant required.

That's the problem.  Principals have unilateral power. And, without the necessary safeguards for using money within the school, the possibility that nefarious actions may occur is unsurprisingly high.

In 2004, I published the letters from the UFT on the Special Education Mess, with children not getting the services they needed. Special education remains a mess, and I keep publishing the missing services and money on my blogs and website Parentadvocates.org. I still represent children and their parents at Impartial Hearings. No one at the DOE is fixing anything, and special education teachers are getting hit with 3020-a. Alot of them.

Ruben Wills and Rushell White

The job of a principal in New York City is to be a CEO, a Chief Executive Officer. Unfortunately, there is no Board of Directors to oversee what happens right, or wrong. That is the mistake that has changed the face of education in America, and certainly New York City.

Principals have too much unchecked power. The Principal's Union, CSA, defends the rights of their members to have total power over their school.

When I reported the $225,000 missing grant money at PS 6 (Carmen Farina was Principal) from the Annenberg Challenge For the Arts,  to Annenberg in or about 2001, their final conclusion after all the grants had been assessed, was that the money should not have been given to principals without safeguards for its' use. Without safeguards in place, too many principals did not use the money correctly, as the grant required.

That's the problem.  Principals have unilateral power. And, without the necessary safeguards for using money within the school, the possibility that nefarious actions may occur is unsurprisingly high.

In 2004, I published the letters from the UFT on the Special Education Mess, with children not getting the services they needed. Special education remains a mess, and I keep publishing the missing services and money on my blogs and website Parentadvocates.org. I still represent children and their parents at Impartial Hearings. No one at the DOE is fixing anything, and special education teachers are getting hit with 3020-a. Alot of them.

See NYC UFT Gives an Overview of the 'Special Education Mess'

The Checks

A picture is worth a thousand words.

When you enter MS 226, you quickly see huge pictures of checks on the wall. The checks -  the representations of checks - are from District #28 City Council Member Ruben Wills, to MS 226 (the school is in District 27). The checks add up to $500,000, but the real amount given last year was more than $1 million.

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

LINK 

by Anthony O’Reilly, Associate Editor | 0 comments

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 Fariña 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

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

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