Chancellor Porter allows assistant prinicpals who fostered culture of cheating at Maspeth High School to remain at their positions

NY Post 

 Let them work at Taco Bell.

Maspeth High School created fake classes, awarded bogus credits, and fixed grades to push students to graduate — “even if the diploma was not worth the paper on which it was printed,” an explosive investigative report charges.

Principal Khurshid Abdul-Mutakabbir demanded that teachers pass students no matter how little they learned, says the 32-page report by the Special Commissioner of Investigation for city schools, Anastasia Coleman.

“I don’t care if a kid shows up at 7:44 and you dismiss at 7:45 — it’s your job to give that kid credit,” the principal is quoted as telling a teacher.

Abdul-Mutakabbir told the teacher he would give the lagging student a diploma “not worth the paper on which it was printed” and let him “have fun working at Taco Bell,” the report says.

The teacher “felt threatened and changed each student’s failing grade to a passing one.”

The SCI report confirms a series of Post exposes in 2019 describing a culture of cheating in which students could skip classes and do little or no work, but still pass. 

Kids nicknamed the no-fail rule “the Maspeth Minimum.”

Chancellor Meisha Porter, who received the SCI report on June 4, removed Abdul-Mutakabbir from the 1,200-student school and city payroll in July pending a termination hearing set for next month.

But she left Maspeth assistant principals Stefan Singh and Jesse Pachter — the principal’s chief lieutenants — on the job.

Singh and Pachter executed the principal’s orders, informants said, and helped create classes to grant credits to students who didn’t have to show up — because the classes weren’t even held, according to the report. 

Abdul-Mutakabbir, Singh and Pachter all refused to answer questions by investigators, citing a right to remain silent, SCI says.

In addition, three teachers in the principal’s “clique” – a favored few who followed orders and got lucrative overtime assignments — also remain.

High school teacher and dean fired from Maspeth High School that is under investigation by the feds

NY Post

A Maspeth High School math teacher and dean who students say gave them answers on Regents exams and texted with them has been removed, The Post has learned.

Danny Sepulveda was escorted out of the Queens school in late December “due to an ongoing investigation,” the city Department of Education confirmed.

DOE officials said the investigation was “unrelated to academic fraud.”

But Sepulveda, 30, is one of several teachers who gave kids answers during Regents exams, according to statements given to investigators.

One student wrote last year that Sepulveda re-read the questions at the end of the exam: “But while he was reading it he was only saying the right answer choice, and this made me uncomfortable because it showed he didn’t believe in me to pass the exam.”

Another student wrote that during a math Regents exam in June 2018, Sepulveda and math teacher Chris Grunert “helped me and other kids in my room with answers.”

Grunert and others accused of academic misconduct have not been removed from the school.

NY Post

The feds have started looking into allegations of widespread academic fraud in New York City schools, a Queens lawmaker says.

City Councilman Robert Holden met this month with officials in the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York after his call for a federal probe of “deep-rooted fraud” in the city Department of Education.

“I’m encouraged by my meeting with the US Attorney. His team is taking this seriously,” Holden told The Post.

FBI agents have already contacted several whistle-blowing teachers whose names he provided, Holden added.

A spokesman for US Attorney Richard Donoghue declined comment.

Holden sent a letter in November to Donoghue in Brooklyn and US Attorney Geoffrey Berman in Manhattan, saying “an apparent pattern of conspiracy to cover up” grade-fixing, cheating and other wrongdoing might warrant an investigation under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), which covers criminal enterprises.

In Atlanta, eight educators were convicted under a RICO statute of manipulating student test scores and sentenced to prison in 2015.

Holden turned over records compiled by former and current faculty members at Maspeth High School in Queens, where teachers say administrators encouraged cheating on exams, enforced a “no-fail policy,” and retaliated against staffers who didn’t play ball.

Civil servants obscuring license plates

From NBC:

A popular breed of license plate shield is allowing motorists to evade tickets and tolls even though the plastic cover appears transparent.

The "PhotoMaskCover" and similar products polarize light so that plate numbers and letters are clearly visible from directly behind a car.

But when viewed from an angle, the characters are obscured. Because cameras at toll bridges, tunnels, and intersections are often positioned from a side angle, the plate covers can help scofflaws slip through E-ZPass lanes and run red lights without fear of being tracked down for their transgressions.

"What they do is they direct the light at the plate and they obscure it from where they think the reader is going to be," said Port Authority Captain Ron Shindel, who is in charge of security at the George Washington Bridge. Shindel said his officers have made at least a dozen arrests for illegally covered license plates at bridge toll stations in the last thirty days.

The I-Team found the polarizing plate covers on vehicles in New Jersey and New York, despite laws in both states that prohibit the obscuring of license plates. In some cases even cars and trucks displaying law enforcement placards had the illegal plate covers.

Last month the I-Team spotted a black SUV parked outside the NYPD 103rd Precinct in Queens with the illegal covers obscuring both front and rear license plates. On the dashboard, a makeshift placard read "PO DiFalco 103 Pct Shield 24212"

NYPD spokesman Sgt. Brendan Ryan sent the I-Team a statement saying "this matter is under internal review."

Attempts to reach Officer DiFalco were unsuccessful.

The I-Team also spotted PhotoMaskCovers or similar devices on a Jeep displaying an FDNY placard and a Chrysler parked in a spot reserved for employees of the Nassau County Police Department.

Let's elect someone with a brain, please

From the Forum:

Less than a week after she was audibly fed answers by Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch during a press conference, Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley was caught playing with her phone during a debate. Several different videos taken during the debate show extended periods of scrolling, eyes locked onto her phone screen, as her competitors engage in an interactive debate.

Her behavior was disrespectful and irresponsible.

An aide claimed she was merely taking notes, to assist in her replies during the debate. The only problem with that is, in order to take notes on a phone, one must type.

Not just scroll. Scrolling is really best for reading – perhaps reading notes and instructions being sent from one’s staff. And if one checks out any of the multiple videos shot during the debate, one sees an awful lot of scrolling.

Even if she was taking notes, they should have been brief thoughts jotted down. Things she might like to mention when it’s her turn to talk. Not the start to a novel.

Watching Crowley at that debate was a little bit too much like catching a fellow teenager cheating on an Algebra test, notes written up and down her arms in black felt marker. Only this time, we’re not teenagers. We are all as grown up as we are going to get. This is it America. We are the adults. And that one’s still got Cliff’s notes.

While we have no problem with a politician fighting for police and firefighters, we have to wonder – what happens if someone else gets into her ear?

Furthermore, the job Crowley’s applying for is to be a congressional representative. She will represent you, on the United States Congress. You, personally. Is that how we want the rest of America to see Queens?

Crowley caught cheating at debate

From the Daily News:

Congressional contender Elizabeth Crowley seemed overly preoccupied with her cell phone during a recent Queens candidate debate, prompting at least one member of the audience to question whether the Councilwoman was getting answers via the mobile from her staff in the audience.

Crowley can be seen checking her cell phone nearly 20 times during the Kissena Park Civic Association debate last Thursday, according to a video link provide the Daily News and posted on YouTube.

Crowley is busy typing and reading her cell as the other hopefuls for the re-drawn 6th Congressional District in Queens grappled with debate questions.

"At first, I thought she was Googling answers or something, but she kept looking at her people in the audience, so I think she was getting answers and information," said a civic leader who also filmed the debate.

"At the very least, it was amazingly rude, and stupid not to give your full focus to the debate," said the videographer, who has not officially endorsed any candidate but did applaud Assemblyman Rory Lancman's proposed bills tackling community overdevelopment.

"If I saw Lancman do this, I would call him out, or any of the other candidates.," he said. "A congressional seat is too important to have someone seemingly getting fed answers."

Crowley's spokesman said such allegations were absurd, and untrue.

"She was using her phone to take notes on the questions," said spokesman Eric Yun. "Other candidates had pen and paper, but she was taking notes on her phone."

Why would she need to take notes if her communications director/spokesman was in the audience? Wouldn't he be doing that for her?