Sunday, May 17, 2009

Assistant principal dies from swine flu

From Newsday:

A hospital official said a school assistant principal has become the first New York City death linked to the swine flu virus.

Flushing Hospital Medical Center spokesman Andrew Rubin said Mitchell Wiener of Intermediate School 238 died Sunday evening. Wiener had been hospitalized and on a ventilator.

New York City Health Commissioner Thomas R. Frieden issued a statement that referred to the increasing number of cases as "a rising tide of flu."

The statement continued: "With the virus spreading widely, closing these and other individual schools will make little difference in transmission throughout New York City, but we hope will help slow transmission within the individual school communities."

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Health Commissioner Frieden is incompetent and his boss, Mayor Mike Bloomturd, has a history of hiring unqualified commissioners.
Both badly botched the Swine Flu epidemic.

Anonymous said...

I feel so bad for his family

Ms. Tsouris said...

There is "a rising tide" of Bu____it from Bloomberg and his incompetent yet powerful henchmen. Heartfelt sympathy to the Wiener family. We were all hoping he'd pull through. We lost "one of us"....a dedicated, caring, lifelong and career educator.

Anonymous said...

damn I went to this school..RIP man.

Anonymous said...

why isnt thompson pointing out that the school wasnt closed so that everything seems ok while the millions of pieces of campaign literature hit the mailboxes. i say "Mr Avella ... revolution now ..."

Anonymous said...

RIP Mitch Wiener.. you were a good neighboor

Anonymous said...

RIP.. this was one of the nicest guys. i once played baseball with my friend out in whitestone and he was the coach. what a nice man. my condolesences to the entire family.

Anonymous said...

Sympathies to all who knew him. A good man, who served the students and this city day in and day out for decades. Our hearts go out to his family.

Anonymous said...

and now the health commish who didn't take the advice of the school administration is heading CDC?? ridiculous.

Sergey Kadinsky said...

ברוך דיין האמת

Having reported on this story last Friday, I deeply thank Mr. Weiner's relatives, friends, and neighbors for giving my newspaper a glimpse into his life and good deeds. The public will remember him, and so will I.

My sympathy extends to his family and colleagues.

Anonymous said...

my mother worked with Mitch for 30 years approx at IS 238. An old friend and colleague of hers. I want people to know that he called the dept of health one week earlier when students were calling out sick left and right. i believe he requested that the school be closed. in my opinion this situation needs to be looked at further to avoid future trajic deaths. i'm located out of state now, but whoever is reading this with kids in schools, please let your voice be heard. this needs to be taken seriously especially in nyc where there are millions of people with constant contact with one another on a daily basis.

PizzaBagel said...

If he hasn't done it already, Hizzoner will offer faint praise for Mr. Wiener, but you can bet in his heart he will not truly be disappointed by his departure. This will open up a space for a younger individual who will reap much less benefits from the system and who will be more easily bullied around. It's the corporate mindset that he brings to our government. Just a modern-day Scrooge.

Anonymous said...

http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cache:RmHhqljPmi8J:www.ny1.com/Content/Top_Stories/99169/wife-of-flu-victim-charges-city-did-not-take-quick-enough-action/Default.aspx+Mitch+Weiner+IS+238+called+department+of+health&cd=7&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

Anonymous said...

R.I.P His family should sue freden and bloomjerk.

Taxpayer said...

Any need for me to explain the name Commissar DEATH and Taxes?

Rest in Peace, Mr. Wiener.

My condolences to Mrs. Wiener and the family.

Anonymous said...

God Rest His Soul.

Anonymous said...

pizza bagel said...
"This will open up a space for a younger individual who will reap much less benefits from the system and who will be more easily bullied around. It's the corporate mindset that he brings to our government. Just a modern-day Scrooge."

You hit the nail on the head. Mr Wiener represents ths good old -fashioned way of hiring administrators. You taught for many years, then became an a.p., then a principal.
Take a close look at many schools now. A.P's and in some cases principals are barely 30. It's THAT inexperience that will one day be the schools' doom.

I'm sure Mr. Wiener will be very missed. Especially after his replacement starts to make problems for all of the staff there at that school.

linda said...

What a damn shame, now if our dumb ass bloomberg would of just shut down the damn schools maybe this would of never happened. he knew there were more cases of the swine flu but just ignored it and thought it would just go away. 18 schools he's worried about i say he should worry more about the city being sued... people getting sick could be avoided if the dumb ass would just shut down all schools for the rest of the year. air out the schools and clean the shit up. My son gets the flu shot every year I would suggest the same for all children. My heart and prayers go out to his wife and family, the lost is too great.

Anonymous said...

Italian Girl is 100% correct. A career educator is career educated. It takes years--day after day, student after student, class after class, semester after semester. Like Mr. Weiner, bless his memory. BloomKlein wants people who are beholden to them so they pass by the experienced teachers and send unseasoned (but I am sure well-meaning)newbies to these academies and then plop them in key positions. Thye dare not speak up, they dare not advocate.Is this sound business practice? Well, I guess it is. BloomKlein should have asked one question of teachers:"How can we help you do what you do?" Sad.