NYC DOE hit with record number of complaints about misbehaving teachers in 2022

 Complaints about misbehaving New York City Department of Education teachers and workers skyrocketed to a record 9,813 last year — up 60% from 2021, a disturbing new report found.

The Special Commissioner of Investigation’s troubling tally eclipsed the record set in 2019 of 9,638 complaints.

Investigators concluded last year at least 263 school employees broke criminal law or administrative rules, including 40 cases involving inappropriate or sexual misconduct, according to the agency’s 2022 annual report.

Yet only 17 SCI cases were referred to prosecutors, and only four of those cases made it to court.

“We are deeply concerned by the lack of follow through and accountability regarding cases of sexual misconduct in New York City Schools,” Emily Miles, executive director of New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault, told The Post.

“All survivors, no matter their age, deserve systems that take them and their experiences seriously and work to keep them and their peers safe from future harm.”

Criminal cases often fall apart because an alleged victim stops cooperating with an investigation or parents forbid police to interview their children.

Paul Narducci allegedly groomed a Brooklyn Academy of Science and the Environment student beginning when she was a freshman, investigators said.

medium.com/Paul Narducci

One of the most egregious allegations came against a 22-year-old afterschool worker, Iber Poma II, who was arrested for raping a 12-year-old girl on June 20, 2022.

The criminal complaint alleges Poma raped a 12-year-old student on three consecutive days near PS 108 in Morris Park beginning on June 11, 2022.

The SCI did not release any additional details about Poma, including what company he worked for, the access he had to children, and any of the circumstances surrounding the alleged sexual assault.

Other cases include a Brooklyn Academy of Science and the Environment teacher accused of a “brazen pattern of grooming” a female student when she was a freshman before repeatedly sexually assaulting her, according to an SCI investigative report.

The Crown Heights science teacher, 32-year-old Paul Narducci, even moved across the street from the alleged victim, who came forward after graduating from the school and is now 21 years old, according to the report.

Narducci resigned a month before SCI closed its investigation in December 2022 and recommended his firing.

The alleged victim eventually stopped cooperating with authorities despite investigators substantiating her claims.

Charges were never filed and Narducci still holds a state teaching license.

Natalie Black allegedly sent at least 15 pictures of herself to a 17-year-old student at Hillside Arts and Letters Academy, according to an SCI report.

youtube.com

SCI-substantiated allegations of sexual misconduct include:

• Natalie Black, a 28-year-old former teacher at Hillside Arts and Letters Academy in Queens, allegedly sent at least 15 pictures of herself to a 17-year-old student in late 2021. Investigators claimed in the report that Black also sent pictures of her vagina to students and even pulled her pants down in a student’s home, telling him to “eat my ass,” but no charges were ever filed against Black. She was “removed from DOE service.”
• Yehia Younis, a 78-year-old former teacher at PS 771 in Brighton Beach, is accused of masturbating on camera during a Skype tutoring session with a 12-year-old girl in July 2020, according to the SCI report. Younis retired before SCI closed the case and recommended his firing, in February 2022. Charges were never brought after the girl’s mother said she didn’t want her daughter to be interviewed by police.
• Mercedes Liriano, a 56-year-old former English teacher at MS 224 in Mott Haven, allegedly used her school email address to solicit threesomes and exchange racy photos between December 2016 and September 2017, although the emails didn’t come to light until January 2021, according to the SCI reports. Liriano is now a reading teacher in Marietta, GA, according to her online resume and the school’s website.
• Samuel Choi, a 33-year-old former teacher at JHS 189 in Flushing, who investigators found inappropriately touched a 12-year-old girl and two 13-year-old girls on the thighs, back, and arms, according to the SCI report. The NYPD arrested Choi, who resigned three days after he was arrested, but the case eventually violated speedy trial statutes and was tossed, the report says.

“It’s not acceptable,” Dr. Elizabeth Jeglic, a John Jay College of Criminal Justice professor who focuses on institutional sexual abuse and grooming, told The Post.

“It’s not acceptable if there any boundary violations.

“These are the people that we entrust our children to that are foundational in our children’s development and future learning.”

Jeglic authored a study last May that surveyed over 6,600 people and found that 11.7% experienced some form of educator sexual misconduct between grades K-12, mostly inappropriate comments although a small percentage reported being physically abused.

Narducci resigned a month before SCI closed its investigation.

Brooklyn Academy of Science and the Environment

She said her study found that children who report the incidents face more negative psychological effects — such as drug abuse and suicide — than those who don’t.

“It could be either that the educator misconduct is causing those things or they’re choosing kids that are already troubled and taking advantage of them,” Jeglic said.

Poma II, Liriano, and Choi could not be reached for comment. Narducci and the DOE did not respond to messages. Younis told The Post that he does not remember the incident probed by SCI.

https://nypost.com/2023/04/15/nyc-doe-hit-with-record-number-of-complaints-about-misbehaving-teachers/

Biden all but admits we’ll see even worse border chaos in May

 President Joe Biden vows that on May 11 he’ll end the use of Title 42 to turn away migrants.

Yet he has no plans to deal with the flood of newcomers the move will unleash — with as many as 40,000 now already massed on the Mexican side, alarming officials.

And last week, he all but admitted it.

On Monday, Biden signed a bill ending the national COVID emergency.

Yet a similar public-health-emergency declaration that allows border agents to bar migrants under Title 42 will remain in effect until next month. Huh?

Team Biden says it needs more time to get “policies in place” before ending Title 42.

“The Administration supports an orderly, predictable wind-down of Title 42, with sufficient time to put alternative policies in place,” an Office of Management and Budget statement Monday read.

Translation: Biden’s folks have no plan yet.

And there’s scant reason to think they’ll have any serious one a month from now.

In January, recall, they rolled out a supposedly major shift to stem the tide, letting officials deny immigrants from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Haiti the chance to apply for asylum if they crossed the border illegally.

Yet 30,000 of those migrants (360,000 a year) would be allowed to migrate here if they met certain criteria. And even those denied represent only a fraction of the migrants.

Anyway, migrant encounters topped 212,000 in February (the month after the announcement) — 11% more than February 2022 and four times as much as Donald Trump’s last February as president.

This month, Team Biden said it would increase use of a decades-old law that has asylum-seekers interviewed at the border.

Yet it admits that would affect only a small number of migrants. And most would likely be allowed to remain anyway, no matter how weak their asylum claims.

Ditto for possible plans to reinstate Trump- and Obama-era family detention.

Under the rules the Bidenites contemplate, those families would still be released after just a few weeks.

Indeed, the president’s commitment to lefty views on migrants’ rights leaves his enforcement choices hopelessly limited.

As the Center for Immigrations Studies’ Mark Krikorian notes, any tough-sounding policies the prez may roll out will contain all kinds of loopholes.

Let’s be honest: Biden doesn’t give a damn about border enforcement.

More than 6 million illegal migrants have rushed the border during his tenure, with about 4 million either set free or escaping interception entirely.

The onslaught has wreaked havoc on not just border towns but cities like New York that can’t afford the enormous costs to accommodate them.

It’s also fueled the fentanyl plague.

And it’s guaranteed to grow worse when Title 42 ends.

https://nypost.com/2023/04/15/biden-all-but-admits-well-see-even-worse-border-chaos-in-may/

Charges in alleged COVID vax fraud do not target NYC teachers

 Long Island nurse Julie DeVuono was indicted last week on charges she raked in $1.5 million selling fraudulent COVID-19 vaccine cards — but the only customers mentioned by prosecutors are three undercover detectives who conducted a sting.

That could be good news for possibly hundreds of NYC employees, including 82 teachers and four assistant principals, suspected of buying the cards to get around the city’s vaccine mandate, legal experts and advocates say.

“It means they are not going to be charged criminally, or they would have been charged by now,” said Betsy Combier, a paralegal who helped 30 teachers successfully sue the city Department of Education to get their jobs back.

DeVuono, the owner of Wild Child Pediatric Center, has pleaded not guilty to felony charges of selling fraudulent vax cards, registering them in the state immunization data system, and laundering $236,980 by paying off the mortgage on a home she shared with her husband, an NYPD cop. Police found $869,000 in cash stashed in her house. 

Wild Child received shipments of 3,174 vaccine doses through an agreement with the federal CDC, the indictment states. Employees allegedly charged customers $220 to $350 for each dose falsely marked on a vax card for adults, and $85 for kids — then tossed the vaccine in the trash.

Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney refused to comment on any consequences for customers.

Whether the DOE employees face disciplinary charges is unclear. The Special Commissioner of Investigations for city schools confirmed to The Post on Friday that its probe of possible misconduct is ongoing.

A fake vaccine card that was sold to an NYC teacher.

After the Suffolk County DA arrested DeVuono in January 2022, the SCI gave the DOE the names of 92 employees who claimed they got vaccinated at Wild Child, citing “a high probability” that they had submitted false proof of the required COVID-19 shots, records show.

The DOE suspended those employees without pay in April 2022, but has since returned them to the city payroll, following lawsuits and union complaints that the staffers were removed without due process.

DeVuono’s lawyer, Steven Gaitman of Gaitman and Russo, said he believes two Wild Child employees originally charged in the alleged scam have agreed to testify against DeVuono. The co-defendants claimed they acted on DeVuono’s instructions to collect money for vaccine cards without giving the shots.

“We suspect they chose to accept a plea bargain and made an agreement with the government to assist themselves and point the finger at Julie,” Gaitman said, adding that DeVuono denies involvement in the alleged fraud.

“Julie had very little involvement with the vaccination side of the practice. Her main focus was her successful pediatric nursing practice. We are going to fight these charges vigorously.”

Jeremy Saland, a criminal defense lawyer and former Manhattan prosecutor, said the DA could charge customers who obtained and used a fake vax card with criminal possession of a forged instrument or offering a false instrument for filing, both felonies. Evidence could include an eyewitness account by a Wild Child employee cooperating with the prosecution.

But prosecutors may have decided against “a wholesale sweep of teachers,” Saland said. “To have them all saddled with felonies and lose their jobs would be somewhat extreme to the teacher and indirectly harm students” by disrupting their learning.

“We have no word on the status of any DOE investigation into this matter,” said United Federation of Teachers spokesman Dick Riley. “Because of a grievance filed by the UFT and a court decision, all who wanted to return to their original schools have done so.  Back pay is being processed.”

https://nypost.com/2023/04/15/charges-in-alleged-covid-vax-fraud-do-not-target-nyc-teachers/

Don’t get the schmear and save on NY’s crazy ‘sandwich tax’

 They found a bagel loophole.

Unbeknownst to most New Yorkers, we get slapped with the standard 8.875% city and state sales tax each time we buy a bagel that’s sliced and schmeared.

According to the state Dept. of Taxation and Finance, a buttered bagel, or one with lox and cream cheese, is considered a “prepared sandwich” and subject to the unappetizing levy.

But just in time for income-tax deadline day, Philadelphia Cream Cheese and famed H&H Bagels have figured out a way to circumvent the sandwich tax.

They’ve created an unsliced bagel with cream cheese already inside. No slicing, no schmering and no tax.

The tax-free bagels are being offered through April 18 in full-size plain, sesame and cinnamon raisin flavors, with plain cream cheese.

They are priced at $1.90, less than half the $4.46 H&H usually charges for a taxed, sliced and cream cheese-schmeared bagel.

Brad Shaw, who lives on the Upper West Side, ordered a tax-free everything bagel during H&H’s promotion.

Helayne Seidman

“The nice thing about the tax-free bagel is that it’s pre made,” said Upper West Sider Brad Shaw, 57, who spoke to The Post while buying an everything bagel at H&H’s on Columbus Avenue. “You get in and out and it’s cheaper. Everything a New Yorker wants.”

H&H, which has five locations in the Big Apple, had the idea to use a pastry tool to stuff the bagels. They determined the amount of cream cheese to use by weighing a schmeared bagel.

“It took about two weeks of product testing, just trial and error,” said director of bakery operations JD Gross, who came up with the piping process.

“Once it’s completed, they’re refrigerated and then we heat them in a convection oven for only two minutes, and then they’re ready to go,” said Ryan Klepper, director of restaurant operations.

“It was a pleasant surprise,” said Karly Penner, 37, at H&H on Columbus Friday. “We live in Texas. Tax laws are very different there.”

Klepper said most people are unaware of the sandwich tax.

“I did not know about this tax at all,” said Upper West Sider Susmita Ghose, 26. “I had no idea.”

“Even when I got into the bagel business, I was surprised to see that you could buy a quarter pound of cream cheese and a plain bagel and pay no tax, but if you put that cream cheese on a plain bagel, now it was subject to tax,” Klepper said.

https://nypost.com/2023/04/15/dont-get-the-schmear-and-save-on-nys-crazy-sandwich-tax/

Soros’ army of lieutenants get easy access to Biden White House

 Far-left billionaire George Soros has a legion of loyal lieutenants who’ve racked up over two dozen meetings with top officials at the White House since President Biden took office, The Post has learned.

The progressive kingmaker’s unrivaled access into the Biden administration extends well beyond his 37-year-old son Alexander, who chairs the powerful, liberal grant-making network Open Society Foundations founded by his dad, and as The Post reported on Page 1 last week, has taken on the role of a de-facto White House “ambassador” by making at least 14 visits there.

At least four other past or present leaders at Open Society Foundations have amassed a combined 33 private meetings and other confabs in less than two years, according to recently updated White House visitor logs.

Tom Perriello, executive director of the group’s United States operation, and a former Virginia congressman, scored 17 visits alone since May 2021, records show.

His latest trips include separate Dec. 15 meetings with Rachel Chiu, chief of staff for the White House’s Office of Political Strategy and Outreach, and White House Associate Director of Strategic Outreach Sabrina Bousbar; and a Dec. 2 sitdown with John Podesta, Biden’s senior advisor for clean energy innovation and implementation.

Tom Perriello, executive director of Open Society Foundations’ U.S. operation, has scored 17 White House meetings in the past two years for meetings and events.

He had five meetings with Kimberly Lang, then a National Security Advisor executive assistant, held between May 2021 and July 18.

He also visited on Sept. 13, 2022, when Biden hosted an “inflation reduction” party on the White House South Lawn featuring classic folk-rocker James Taylor – even as the stock market continued to plummet.

Patrick Gaspard, a former Open Society Foundations president who now heads a liberal think tank heavily funded by Soros called Center for American Progress, visited 10 times, including July 7 with White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jen O’Malley Dillon. Gaspard was previously a key advisor to ex-New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Open Society board member Ivan Krastev and its chief of staff Nicole Wilett each logged three visits, with Krastev accompanying Alexander Soros at Oct. 6 meetings with Lang and later Deputy National Security Advisor John Finer, according to records.

Former Open Society Foundations President Patrick Gaspard’s 10 White House visits during the Biden administration include a sit-down with White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jen O’Malley Dillon.

George Soros’ son Alexander has taken on the role of a de-facto White House “ambassador,” making at least 14 visits there since late 2021.

Anthony J. Causi

Wilett was among 739 people who attended a Dec. 21 event thrown by Biden, logs show. That’s the same day Biden met at the White House with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and announced the U.S. would be sending billions of dollars overseas to boost Ukrainian troops in their war with Russia.

“It’s hard to tell where the Biden administration begins and the Open Society Foundations ends,” said Tom Fitton, president of the conservative Judicial Watch.

The White House, Open Society Foundations, Perriello, Gaspard, and the Soros family did not return messages.

https://nypost.com/2023/04/15/george-soros-army-of-lieutenants-has-easy-white-house-access/