Principal Michael Wiltshire (right) is being investigated for not coming forward with allegations by a girl that she was raped by five Boys and Girls High School football players at the Brooklyn school (left).
Photo: Matthew McDermott (2); Ellis Kaplan
[From article]
Administrators at a troubled Brooklyn high school face potential firing for covering up allegations that a female student was raped by five football players in a locker room, The Post has learned.
The educators include Boys and Girls High School Principal Michael Wiltshire, who was publicly praised by Mayor Bill de Blasio last year but is currently eyeing a new job on Long Island.
An internal investigation by the Department of Education concluded last week that Wiltshire and two assistant principals failed to report the alleged mid-December gang rape after meeting with the girl and her mom, according to a source familiar with the probe’s findings.
Investigators also found the trio failed to report the suspected theft and use of a DOE credit card by students at Boys and Girls, the source said.
“We have clear reporting procedures to ensure incidents and misconduct are thoroughly addressed, and any failure to report is deeply concerning,” DOE spokeswoman Devora Kaye told The Post on Thursday.
[. . .]
DOE rules include a mandate that all employees who learn of alleged crimes committed by students that don’t pose an “immediate safety threat” are required to notify the principal, who “must, in turn, notify the police and the [school safety agent]” and the “appropriate superintendent.”
Principals also are required to file an incident report within 24 hours through the DOE’s Online Occurrence Reporting System.
Instead, Wiltshire and his assistants — Cami Wittingham and Sherlene Thomas-Hughes — questioned whether the girl consented to the locker room incident, the source familiar with the investigation said.
The NYPD’s Special Victims Division, which investigates sex crimes, has no record of a reported rape at the Bed-Stuy school during December, a police spokesman said. DOE officials said no charges were filed.
In addition, “nothing has been entered” into the DOE’s computer system, which is used to compile annual, state-mandated reports, the source familiar with the internal investigation said.
DOE Superintendent Michael Alcoff, who oversees Boys and Girls as part of de Blasio’s School Renewal Program to turn around 94 underperforming schools, learned about the alleged rape through an anonymous phone call following the principal’s meeting with the girl and her mom, the source said.
Wiltshire played dumb when Alcoff confronted him about the tipster’s call and denied knowing anything about the rape allegations, the source said.
Alcoff then blew the whistle, sparking a probe by the city schools’ Special Commissioner of Investigation Richard Condon. His office referred the case to the DOE’s Office of Special Investigations.
Probers recommended that the DOE convene a “technical conference” with department lawyers to consider firing or otherwise disciplining the administrators, the source said.
Wiltshire was put in charge of Boys and Girls in 2014 to improve its dismal performance, which at the time included three straight F’s on its annual progress reports and a graduation rate of just 42 percent.
The deal included a $25,000 bonus for Wiltshire — who earns $182,000-plus annually — and an unusual arrangement that made him “master principal” at Medgar Evers College Preparatory School in Crown Heights, which he has run for the past 13 years.
At last year’s Boys and Girls graduation ceremony, de Blasio hailed Wiltshire’s performance there, which included boosting the graduation rate to 50 percent.
“What I have seen just over this last year from Principal Wiltshire is the kind of leadership that moves mountains, that inspires people, that changes things that people say couldn’t be changed,” de Blasio said.
Wiltshire recently interviewed for a new job as principal of Uniondale High School on Long Island and was planning to decide whether to accept it by the end of the city school year on June 28, DOE officials said.
A statement from the Uniondale school district said it was “currently in the process of interviewing candidates” and that “no decision has been made.”
Wiltshire refused to comment Thursday outside his home in Springfield Gardens, Queens, but later sent an email to The Post saying: “You can contact the superintendent’s office to verify the story. This is not true. Thank you.”
http://nypost.com/2016/06/02/principal-accused-of-covering-up-alleged-locker-room-gang-rape/
Principal accused of covering up alleged locker room gang rape
By Yoav Gonen and Bruce Golding
New York Post
June 2, 2016 | 11:30pm
[From article]
Administrators at a troubled Brooklyn high school face potential firing for covering up allegations that a female student was raped by five football players in a locker room, The Post has learned.
The educators include Boys and Girls High School Principal Michael Wiltshire, who was publicly praised by Mayor Bill de Blasio last year but is currently eyeing a new job on Long Island.
An internal investigation by the Department of Education concluded last week that Wiltshire and two assistant principals failed to report the alleged mid-December gang rape after meeting with the girl and her mom, according to a source familiar with the probe’s findings.
Investigators also found the trio failed to report the suspected theft and use of a DOE credit card by students at Boys and Girls, the source said.
“We have clear reporting procedures to ensure incidents and misconduct are thoroughly addressed, and any failure to report is deeply concerning,” DOE spokeswoman Devora Kaye told The Post on Thursday.
[. . .]
DOE rules include a mandate that all employees who learn of alleged crimes committed by students that don’t pose an “immediate safety threat” are required to notify the principal, who “must, in turn, notify the police and the [school safety agent]” and the “appropriate superintendent.”
Principals also are required to file an incident report within 24 hours through the DOE’s Online Occurrence Reporting System.
Instead, Wiltshire and his assistants — Cami Wittingham and Sherlene Thomas-Hughes — questioned whether the girl consented to the locker room incident, the source familiar with the investigation said.
The NYPD’s Special Victims Division, which investigates sex crimes, has no record of a reported rape at the Bed-Stuy school during December, a police spokesman said. DOE officials said no charges were filed.
In addition, “nothing has been entered” into the DOE’s computer system, which is used to compile annual, state-mandated reports, the source familiar with the internal investigation said.
DOE Superintendent Michael Alcoff, who oversees Boys and Girls as part of de Blasio’s School Renewal Program to turn around 94 underperforming schools, learned about the alleged rape through an anonymous phone call following the principal’s meeting with the girl and her mom, the source said.
Wiltshire played dumb when Alcoff confronted him about the tipster’s call and denied knowing anything about the rape allegations, the source said.
Alcoff then blew the whistle, sparking a probe by the city schools’ Special Commissioner of Investigation Richard Condon. His office referred the case to the DOE’s Office of Special Investigations.
Probers recommended that the DOE convene a “technical conference” with department lawyers to consider firing or otherwise disciplining the administrators, the source said.
Wiltshire was put in charge of Boys and Girls in 2014 to improve its dismal performance, which at the time included three straight F’s on its annual progress reports and a graduation rate of just 42 percent.
The deal included a $25,000 bonus for Wiltshire — who earns $182,000-plus annually — and an unusual arrangement that made him “master principal” at Medgar Evers College Preparatory School in Crown Heights, which he has run for the past 13 years.
At last year’s Boys and Girls graduation ceremony, de Blasio hailed Wiltshire’s performance there, which included boosting the graduation rate to 50 percent.
“What I have seen just over this last year from Principal Wiltshire is the kind of leadership that moves mountains, that inspires people, that changes things that people say couldn’t be changed,” de Blasio said.
Wiltshire recently interviewed for a new job as principal of Uniondale High School on Long Island and was planning to decide whether to accept it by the end of the city school year on June 28, DOE officials said.
A statement from the Uniondale school district said it was “currently in the process of interviewing candidates” and that “no decision has been made.”
Wiltshire refused to comment Thursday outside his home in Springfield Gardens, Queens, but later sent an email to The Post saying: “You can contact the superintendent’s office to verify the story. This is not true. Thank you.”
http://nypost.com/2016/06/02/principal-accused-of-covering-up-alleged-locker-room-gang-rape/
Principal accused of covering up alleged locker room gang rape
By Yoav Gonen and Bruce Golding
New York Post
June 2, 2016 | 11:30pm
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