Let Me Explain

I am posting two videos today. They provide the best explanation of my charges about corruption within the New York City school system.
I wish to make it clear that the difficulties I have encountered in trying to get these charges investigated stem from corruption in the middle management level of city government. People in the Chancellor’s Office, the Corporation Counsel, District 75’s Central Office and other agencies have helped protect the individual who assaulted the students and me. They also worked overtime to prevent any and all inquiries into the subsequent cover-ups.
Chancellor Klein had promised a thorough investigation into the brutality I and the students experienced. An inquiry was indeed started. However, just as clear evidence of substantial wrongdoing was established, people on the chancellor’s staff quietly put an end to the investigation.
An unfortunate outcome of this manipulation was that the chancellor thought that nothing had been established concerning my allegations. As a result Chancellor Klein was put in the embarrassing position of promoting the person at the center of this inquiry to the post of Deputy Superintendent of District 75 in spite of all the unanswered questions into his trustworthiness.

The first is an introduction into the scandal:
Such Sheninigans !
The second provides some of the necessary documentation of my charges:
Hibernians and Corruption in City Government</

There is lots of documentation to be found on this site. I will be willing to direct any reader to the specific places where an item is documented.

I will also be glad to answer any questions you might have.

So leave a comment or a question and I will get back to you.

Also, people have asked that I detail the nature of my assaults and the brain injuries I suffered. I have tried to discuss it on camera, but find it much too strong and overwhelming for me to discuss in a professional manner at this time.
Fortunately, my late partner, Al, put together a PowerPoint presentation using my medical records.

What Happened to Larry Hayes, by Al Cashdollar

He finished it shortly before he died.

When he relized the danger I was wandering around the city lost in the dementia brought on by the TBI - Traumatic Brain Injury, he gave up full-time work to take care of me.
He went through bankrupcy because of me and the stress of setback after setback brought on coronary problems, then diabetes, and eventually death. He dropped dead trying to dress me one morning.

AFFIDAVATE in Support of my Charges

My brother, John, asked to see some of the documents I make reference to in my writing. With my TBI my communication is often elliptical - I skip over relevant information.

So here is a sample of the letter I have sent to the mayor, chancellor and other officials:

I am filing this complaint against two city employees, Kevin McCormack of the New York Department of Education and Dudley Thompson of the New York Corporation Counsel.

These men conspired to defraud me on or before June 4, 2003.

My former principal, Mr. McCormack took the witness stand and gave false testimony, presented fraudulent documents and admitted not knowing the first thing about being a principal.

The testimony was so absurd it is clear that it was never vetted by the Department of Education as required. He was a Supervising Principal and knew that all testimony had to be “cleared by headquarters” Back when he was a school principal he always told employees under him to go down to the General Counsel’s Office before even going for a deposition.

It is also clear that Mr. Thompson, never notified the Chancellor’s General Counsel, Michael Best. Mr. Best even stated that there was no testimony that day by anyone at the Department of Education; he knows Mr. Thompson and Mr. Thompson knows all testimony has to be okayed the DOE’s legal staff. In fact, Mr. Thompson always notifies him personally!

How could either Mr. Thompson or Mr. McCormack go ahead and skip over this vital step and think they could get away with it?

As I outline in my enclosed affidavit, they had to feel confident that they were free to keep this testimony secret, because they knew the other one was also keeping quiet. They relied on the other’s secrecy, and this constitutes a conspiracy.

I had also filed complaints about the judge in the case, who permitted this testimony among other missteps. A few months ago the Committee on Judicial Conduct looked into my allegations but found that my former attorneys did not want to criticize a sitting judge.

However, the Chief Investigator, Roger Schwarz, told me that what happened between the city’s attorney and that principal constituted a conspiracy. He told me to report it to the DA because the Statute of Limitations on Conspiracy to Commit Fraud is very long.

After repeated letters to the DA’s Office they finally referred me to your office.

Please know that besides the DA I have tried every route I could find to .bring this cover-up into the light of day.

Betsy Gotbaum cornered the Chancellor at a public event and told him about this principal’s bizarre testimony. Chancellor Klein personally promised me an investigation and he did his best to see that there was one. He sent off a stern letter to Michael Best, the General Counsel to the Chancellor, and asked why there had been no investigation of such outrageous behavior. He ordered him to start one.

Still nothing happened for several months. Finally a new attorney started working at the office, Ms.Courtney Jackson-Chasen. They dumped the case on her. She interviewed me at length on the telephone. I sent her piles of confidential medical records and psychological reports concerning my injury. She acquainted herself with the appropriate rules, regulations and the New York State Education Laws. Progress was being made at last!

However, once her superiors in the Chancellor’s General Counsel’s Office found out that Ms. Jackson-Chasen was starting to ask embarrassing questions Mr. Best quickly took the investigation away from her.

So, while I am asking your office to investigate these two individuals. You might also ask Mr. Best what made him shut down that investigation. You might also ask Richard Condon’s Office why no one was interested in investigating my allegations of corruption, but chose instead to forward them to people who do not investigate such matters.

The reason an investigation is important at this time is that if you can find the people who had these two men act in consort you will expose the systematic corruption in School District 75. It was set up as the “Chancellor’s District” to keep it free from the politics in community control. Instead people like Kevin McCormack get almost automatic promotions and are appointed to posts over better qualified candidates.

Kevin McCormack was totally inappropriate for the Manhattan Occupational Center. Several times I had to tell him not to ask teachers how retarded they thought a student was right in front of the students.

At the time I was assaulted I had already reported him for misappropriating funds meant for the students to refurbish his office. I was also pressing him about other missing money. I had complained about my assailant brutalizing his young students. I expect those complaints to go to right to the state.

Instead that teacher goes after me. He stalked me. Then he publicly harassed me. He even had his students yell insults at me. And the principal does nothing. Then this guy jumps me from behind, plummets me about the classroom, and the principal does nothing. Kevin McCormack has a pile of grievances from where he failed to report other assaults, why not this one?

This teacher is emboldened with what he got away with. After all he jumped me from behind and plummeted around the room before I could get to my feet, and the principal covered it up for him. Now this teacher, crazed by the use of illegal steroids, feels free to attack me again in front of students, this principal covers it up

I am left with Traumatic Brain Injury, tendons that have to be stapled back on my bones, fractured vertebrae and chronic pain for the rest of my life, it was a just a minor incident. No need to report anything. We sat around and laughed it off, he says in court! Kevin McCormack is rid of me and the questions I was asking, and ready for his next promotion.

The committee to choose a new principal for our school met with the administrators at the District 75 Office. They were told they had to select Mr. McCormack. They objected because he had never worked with a mentally retarded population. They were told that he was only going to be at the school a few years and then he’d be moving up to the a job at the district office and that would be good for the school!

For too long corrupt politicians, such as Mario Biaggi, have had their say in the running of District 75. I think it is time that the best qualified people get into the positions of power. The 21st Century is too late a time for Tammany Hall to be still running things in New York!

Here is a copy of the affidavit which accompanies each of these letters:

Affidavit
in support of the charges against
Kevin McCormack of the New York Department of Education
and
Dudley Thompson of the Corporation Counsel, City of New York

Copy of the signed and sworn document sent to your office May 3, 2009

On or before June 4,2003 Mr. Kevin McCormack entered into an agreement, either spoken or tacit, with Mr. Dudley Thompson to defraud the Supreme Court of New York State, the jury seated at this trial, and Mr. Lawrence Hayes.

Both knew that they were responsible to notify Mr. McCormack’s employer the New York Department of Education (DOE) of Mr. McCormack’s pending testimony, yet each failed to notify the New York Department of Education as required. This took some form of coordination.

Each had great experience in court appearances by employees of the Department of Education. Dudley Thompson had represented the DOE many times. Each and every time an employee was to testify he made sure that the DOE knew about the upcoming court date and that all these employees went down to the Chancellor’s General Counsel’s Office to have the testimony and the evidence to be presented vetted by the DOE’s lawyers.

When the Chancellor’s chief attorney, Mr. Michael Best, was told that Mr. McCormack had testified at this trial he was baffled. He checked the date: “There was no testimony by anyone at the DOE that day. Dudley Thompson always makes it a point to notify me personally beforehand. There was no testimony the date you gave me. There was no trial.”

Kevin McCormack definitely knew that he was required to notify the Chancellor’s General Counsel’s Office. He had testified in court many times and knew what was required. As principal he had sent many other employees under him down to the General Counsel’s Office before they were to testify.

When he testified Mr. McCormack was no longer a school principal; he had been appointed Supervising Principal. Expertise in all the regulations and routines a principal must know was a necessary job-requirement. It was his job to make sure that the new principals under his supervision new and followed such regulations and routines.

Each knew he had the responsibility to notify the General Counsel’s Office and did not. Each knew that the other was also required to notify that office. The DOE wanted to be sure everything went smoothly for each court appearance by every one of its employees.

The attorney representing the City could not risk not notifying the General Counsel’s Office if he were not absolutely sure the other person who was required to notify them had not done so.

The man representing the DOE also could not have risked his job by not notifying them he was to appear in court, unless he knew the other person who was required to notify them had not done so.

Thus, they worked in tandem. 1.

Why was such cooperation necessary? Both Mr. McCormack and Mr. Thompson knew that Kevin McCormack’s testimony would never pass examination by the General Counsel’s Office. It would get them both in trouble.

No one, for example, would ever authorize Kevin McCormack to state that he was not familiar with the Chancellor’s Regulations on how to report an assault in a school in 1996. After all, the chancellor, Raymond Cortines, had just been ousted in 1995 for not requiring all principals to strictly follow these rules and regulations.

Also, anyone at the DOE would know that copies of these regulations were regularly distributed and discussed at the meetings of principals and of teachers each year – for decades.

Further, given the excessive number of grievances brought against Mr. McCormack based for failing to report many other assaults as required by these regulations made it impossible to swear that he “was not familiar with them.”

Would anybody at the DOE let him present such bogus evidence such as a letter of reprimand he claimed to be from the official file of the Mr. Hayes’ assailant? That person was no longer in that school when the letter was written on June 11, 1996.. They would also have seen that it was never signed by the assailant and could not legally be placed in that official file without his signature.

Also they would have certainly asked Mr. McCormack why there were no witness statements. There were two assaults both in front of staff members and the second in front of a room of terrified emotionally disturbed young girls. A handwritten witness statement from each witness is required by law.

They would also stop him from presenting into evidence the letter he propertied to be an actual witness statement. It was typed by someone and signed by a Mr. Ayalew. But, it does not qualify as a witness statement. Mullah Ayalew is an Ethiopian immigrant who had little command of written language; he’d have difficulty even reading this statement let alone writing it.

Because of all the prior frauds pulled off by administrators over the years by creating phony “witness statements” and badgering staff into signing them, the law requires that witnesses in schools write out these statements in their own hands. No one at the DOE would even let Mr. McCormack bring such a bogus document near a courtroom.

Also, the people at the DOE would want the reports I wrote out after each attack. Where are they? Most never made it into the court!

Also, looking at the reports that did survive they would have to ask Kevin McCormack why these reports were never forwarded to the General Counsel’s Office. It would have led to an investigation of Kevin McCormack’s high-handed disregard for the duties of a principal, and would make it impossible to let him give such bizarre testimony and present such bogus evidence.

Thus, these two men conspired together. It is not necessary for people to formally agree for there to be an agreement, it can even be unspoken.

A criminal conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to do an unlawful act. In this case it is alleged that there was a common unlawful agreement to defraud, by the use of false documents, withheld and/or destroyed documents, false claims, and perjured testimony by Mr. Kevin McCormack, then a Supervising Principal for School District 75, and Mr. Dudley Thompson, then an attorney for the New York City Corporation Council at the Civil Trial:Lawrence Hayes vs the NY City Department of Education June 2003.




This fraud was both:
1.) Intrinsic Fraud by the use of:
Intentionally false representation
False documents
Withheld and/or destroyed documents
False claims
Perjured testimony
Obstruction of Justice
In order to deceive the Court and the jury.

2.) Extrinsic Fraud in that the use of:
Intentionally false representation
False documents
Withheld and/or destroyed documents
False claims
Perjured testimony
Obstruction of Justice
To deny the plaintive, Lawrence Hayes, the right to a full and fair hearing.

After, Mr. Dudley Thompson had finished with Kevin McCormack’s fraudulent presentation to the court; the lawyers for Mr. Hayes began to press him for a quick settlement. They felt that in spite of it self-contradictions, inconsistency and questionable “evidence” Kevin McCormack had swayed the jury.
A poll of several jurors afterwards showed that he had indeed convinced them.
Mr. Hayes was awarded a small settlement only for injuries to his left shoulder, which had been repaired by surgery.
There was no consideration of his the other damages inflicted on Mr. Hayes. He had been pinned between two large, steel doors by his assailant who threw himself against them full force with drop-kicks

He had considerably more bodily injuries such as the two compression fractures to his spine from where his back was crushed by the handle of one of the doors, the broken cervical vertebrae that had to be fused , and the chronic pain and spasms that will need round-the-clock narcotic medication for the rest of his life.

Nor was there any consideration in determining damages of the severe Traumatic Brain Injuries Mr. Hayes received. by having his head smashed from both sides again and again at different angles.

The TBI has caused blurry double-double vision (double-diplopia) , depression, difficulty concentrating or thinking, difficulty finding words or understanding the speech of others (aphasia), difficulty swallowing (dysphagia). dizziness, headache, poor coordination of movement, lightheadedness. loss of balance, difficulty walking, loss of memory, muscle stiffness and/or spasms, sleep difficulties, vertigo, and Slowness in thinking, speaking, acting, or reading.
Mr. Hayes has had to endure the loss of many long friendships because of the difficult for others to deal with his getting lost or easily confused, feeling tired all of the time, having no energy or motivation; and mood changes (feeling sad or angry for no reason). He personally feels that the stress and strain of trying to be caregiver led to the premature demise of his domestic partner of 24 years.



1. Due to the secretive nature of a conspiracy, the government need not prove a formal agreement but can demonstrate its existence through circumstantial evidence or by inference from defendants' actions.

A conspiracy to commit an offence is an inchoate offence in the sense that it is complete without the doing of any act save the act of agreeing to commit the offence: R v Rogerson (1992) 174 CLR 268, 279.

Evidence of acts following the agreement may be the only available proof that the agreement was made, but it is the agreement and not the evidence of the acts that constitutes the offence: R v Gudgeon (1995) 133 ALR 379, 389.
All participants in a conspiracy are deemed responsible for each of the acts and declarations of the others, People v. Rastelli, 37 NY2d 240, 244 (1975); Martin, Capra and Rossi, New York Evidence Handbook Section 8.3.2.4 at 720 (2d ed)

A conspiracy consists of an agreement to commit an underlying crime , coupled with an overt act committed by one of the conspirators in furtherance of the conspiracy (Penal Law Section Section 105.15, 105.20),

NB:
The Supreme Court has described the gravity of the conspiracy offense: 2.
For two or more to confederate and combine together to commit or cause to be committed a breach of the criminal laws, is an offense of the gravest character, sometimes quite outweighing, in injury to the public, the mere commission of the contemplated crime.
It involves deliberate plotting to subvert the laws, educating and preparing the conspirators for further and habitual criminal practices. And it is characterized by secrecy, rendering it difficult of detection, requiring more time for its discovery, and adding to the importance of punishing it when discovered.
2. Pinkerton v. United States, 328 U.S. 640, 644 (1946) (quoting United States v. Rabinowich, 238 U.S. 78. 88 (1915)).
See also Developments, supra note 6, at 924-25 Stating that because of "antisocial potentialities" of conspiracy and the likelihood that additional substantive offenses will result, the state has strong interest in stamping out conspiracy.


AFFIDAVIT



State of New York
County of New York

Personally came before me, the undersigned Notary, the within named
Lawrence P. Hayes, who is a resident of New York County, State of
New York, and makes his/her statement and General Affidavit upon oath and affirmation of belief and personal knowledge that the following matters, facts, and things set forth are true and correct to the best of his/her knowledge:

The Current Situation

I have written both the mayor and the chancellor many times about this issue and never get a reply. Chancellor Klein had demanded a full investigation of these matters, but people in his General Counsel’s Office quickly squelched it.
The chancellor had been adamant that inquiry was needed, and I seriously doubt that he knows that it had been terminated. I had listed complaints against my former principal for destruction of official records, obstruction of justice and other crimes. This man was then appointed Deputy Superintendent of District 75 by the chancellor himself. He must have thought the investigation found this man innocent.
This man has been rewarded for his Gross Incompetence with promotion after promotion. Other more qualified candidates were passed over so this man could advance his career.
We need to root out some of the corruption that runs through

District 75

, the Department of Education and the rest of NY city government – to do this we need to find out how come both my assaults and the subsequent cover-ups have never been properly investigated.

Check out: WHATEVER HAPPENED TO LARRY HAYES? They NEVER have!

I want to know how the

homophobic racist maniac

who attacked me can be returned to the classroom. I want to know how a principal could destroy official records, concoct false documents, lie under oath in order to continue this cover up, and never be questioned by any of the people charged with investigating such wrongdoing.

I am pressing my case because I feel that city investigators have bought into the worst stereotypes of gay people. And, I am making it my business to make sure this never happens again!
The people who have covered this have no regard for the mayor or the chancellor. They have no regard for the people of New York City. The fact is that they are more than willing to put the children of New York at risk.
The individual who assaulted me was removed from the school and sent to the district office. But once there, the administrators wanted him out of the district office because they were afraid of him; he was stalking women who worked there and menacing anybody who crossed his path the wrong way. They wanted this person - of whom THEY were afraid - back in the classroom working with children ASAP!
THE ORIGINAL COVER-UP
How could I be assaulted twice in front of many witnesses and it has been totally ignored??? I filed the complaints with the police. Shaking with pain I dutifully filled out and filed appropriate Incident and Accident Forms. I filed my handwritten witness statement as required by law.
No one cares to investigate why there are no other appropriate witness statements collected by the principal as required by law?

Many of these critical documents are missing, yet no one asks who took or destroyed them?

How could a principal be allowed to mislead a police investigation by using vulgar homophobic stereotypes to mislead the DA’s Office?

Kevin McCormack violated every one of the Chancellor’s Regulations on reporting school violence, yet no one has ever even questioned him on the matter? He even swore under oath that he was not familiar with these well-known regulations even though he was a Supervising Principal?

This same Supervising Principal swore he did not know what the responsibilities of a principal regarding the safety of students and staff, yet he was soon afterwards promoted to the post of Deputy Superintendent????

How could a principal be allowed to mislead a police investigation by using vulgar homophobic stereotypes and use them again and again to mislead the DA’s Office?

Has no one in New York City Government ever heard of Obstruction of Justice?

I need to also know why no one has investigated this extensive series of subsequent cover-ups.

SUBSEQUENT COVER- UPS

THE CORPORATION COUNSEL

The attorney who represented the Corporation Counsel’s Office in defense of the city HAD to be in collaboration with Kevin McCormack in order to let him present such bogus evidence and such bizarre testimony at my civil case.

Both Mr. Thompson and Mr. McCormack never notified the DOE that there was to be a court hearing as required by law.
Thus, Kevin McCormack could fabricate implausible versions of events surrounding my two gay-bashings and not have his testimony vetted by anybody at the DOE, because anybody with any knowledge of educational policy would have thrown both this principal and this lawyer right out of the building.

Has no one in New York City Government ever heard of Conspiracy to Commit Fraud?
THE GENERAL COUNSEL’S OFFICE

The Chancellor’s Chief Counsel received a sharp letter of reprimand from Chancellor Klein after Betsy Gotbaum informed the Chancellor about the continued cover-up of my gay bashing. As I have noted above, there was an investigation started... STARTED.
Once progress was made the Michael Best stopped all further investigation.
The chancellor was then led to believe that this principal had been cleared – so the chancellor was duped into appointing this guy to the post of Deputy Superintendent of District 75
Oh YES, 75 is “The Chancellor’s District” !

Why weren’t the Chancellor’s clear orders followed? Has no one in New York City Government ever heard of Insubordination and Conspiracy to Commit Fraud?

Finally the DOI

If cronyism is behind his refusal to investigate Kevin McCormack and Michael Best, he is the worst offender of the bunch. This is a complete betrayal of Trust!

The chief investigator for corruption at the Department of Education, Richard Condon, has for years treated my complaints and accusations as material for what amounts to a practical joke. Each time my letters wind up on his desk he forwards them to a department that has no jurisdiction over charges of corruption; the DOE's Office of Special Investigations mainly deals with corporal punishment and verbal abuse !

I have spoken to Mr. Hyland and others in OSI and they told me that they do NOT investigate such things as cover-ups and malfeasance by administrators.

When I asked Mr. Condon why his office repeatedly sends my complaints to an office that is not equipped to investigate it, he sent me a letter stating that his decisions were at his discretion and he does not have to explain them to others.

Has no one in New York City Government ever heard of Edward F. Stancik???


Perhaps by passing on this information both the mayor and the chancellor may see that having a real Board of Education acting as advocates for our children will enable them to have ALL the information they need to properly run the schools.

Fourth of July 2009

This is the Fourth of July. I think it is time to focus on having a government that is responsible to the needs of the people - ALL THE PEOPLE!

Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn

Firstr little housekeeping:
You can email me at LarryHayesNYC@aol.com
I do not mind posting all the work you proofreaders are doing for me.
I have Traumatic Brain Injuries. From this damage I have a very strange dyslexia– I not only reverse words, letters and numbers, I invert things I often read 6 as 9 and recently I had to meet some friends at 82th Street – I went instead to 85th That’s right I even confuse 5 and 2.
I have Double-Diplopia common with folks with TBIs. I see a showdown image both above and next to and image. I wear special prism glasses to help compensate for this annoying visual defect.

I use a good word processor to catch typos, but I still miss many so I appreciate the emails with corrections. And, yes, they would fill up the blog if posted – But, that’s the territory!!

I am severely disabled. Everything I do is a work-around. I do not mind people knowing this.

Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn
Currently I am waiting for the New York Department of Investigation to get back to me. I have sent them sharp reprimands for passing on my charges to Richard Condon to conduct the investigation because Richard Condon is one of the people who needs a thorough investigation.

I addressed my correspondence to Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn who runs the department. I doubt that she herself has ever heard any of my charges. I am sure middle-level administrators have botched the handling of my complaints.

As reported in the excellent blog the NYC Rubber Room:
Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn is the daughter of James Gill who helped clean up corruption in New York City schools. Jim Gill was the chairman of the Joint Commission On Integrity in the Public Schools in 1989. He was a superb investigator, and produced the reports that shook up the entire city.

It was Jim Gill’s superb work that led to the appointment of Edward Stancik as the first Special Commissioner of Investigation. Unfortunately after his untimely death
Richard Condon was chosen by Mayor Bloomberg also put the SCI’s Office under the control of the Department of Education – creating a permanent conflict of interest.
I will post the email, snail mail, and telephone number of Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn if I do not hear back from her people soon. Perhaps some of your calls and letters might get through to her.

I admire public servants such as Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn, Mayor Bloomberg, Chancellor Klein, and Manhattan Robert Morgenthau. I find it disgusting that the corruption on the middle administrative levels of their administrations undermine the changes they are struggling to make in New York City.

This is why I call this blog RottenRottenRotten !!!

I am totally disgusted at how this hidden level of dry rot eats away at the very foundations of our city. These corrupt networks of people work tirelessly only for the benefit of each other . They do not work for the public welfare or those well-meaning officials for whom they work; they work to promote the interests of each other.
City offices are filled with little fiefdoms who often work against the public good. Who has which rabbi determines what projects go ahead and which get lost in the shuffle.
You know - projects like, say… investigating why Richard Condon, Michael Best, Dudley Thompson covered up the malfeasance and crimes of Kevin McCormack.

The "MURPHIA" - Corruption in District 75

I had heard that if I wanted to get ahead in District 75, I had to become active in the Ancient Order of Hibernians, a Catholic, Irish-American Fraternal Organization founded in New York City in 1836. For years, I saw administrators who were not Irish-Catholic give their wholehearted support to the Board of Education’s Hibernian branch. I never realized the corruption behind this “old-boys” network until I met Mr. McCormack.

Kevin McCormack proved to be totally inappropriate for the Manhattan Occupational Center. He did not relate well with the students or fully understand them. His training had been with teaching the Hard of Hearing school population. He was totally unprepared for meeting the needs of the students at our school. The MOTC had been set up to provide job training for students with very limited abilities. Several times I had to tell him not to ask teachers “how retarded” they thought a student was right in front of the students.

I had to call him away several times when he’d be tearing into a teacher with a class of lower-functioning and emotionally-handicapped students. Verbally abusing their teacher in front of this type of student upset their already fragile trust in both the teacher and the school itself.

Parent support is important in meeting the needs of any school population. Such support is critical with Special Needs students. Study after study has proved that parental involvement can make the difference in a student’s achievement, indeed the success of the school.

Early on there was a meeting to set up a Parents’ Association at the MOTC. Under prior administrations there had been intense parent support for our activities. Parents had been a vital force in the school-based management teams that had helped run the school prior to the arrival of Kevin McCormack.

Kevin McCormack finally did set up an early-morning meeting suppossedly to reactivate our P. A.

About 10:30 AM I saw the principal escort the parents who had been chosen as officers to help run and expand the association into the teachers; lounge. Kevin McCormack asked the parents to take a seat. He said how busy he was running the school so they should wait there till the end of the school day. He promised he’d be back at around 3:30 with some legal papers they had to sign.

He then walked back. I came by the lounge an hour later and saw this group of dedicated parents who had taking time off from their jobs or their younger children to come to this meeting still sitting there. Finally as teachers filed in to eat their lunch, they realized that McCormack really meant what he had said - one by one they got up and drifted out of the room.

Weeks later at our teachers’ monthly after-school conference, Kevin McCormack boldly complained that he had tried to set up a new parents’ association - but though several parents had shown up - none of them would give it their active support!

How did this man get this job?

The committee to choose a new principal for our school met with the administrators at the District 75 Office. They were told they had to select Mr. McCormack. They objected because they had a better qualified candidate in none of our assistant principals. They were very disturbed that this man had never worked with a mentally-retarded population.

They were told that he was only going to be at the school a few years and then he’d be moving up to the a job at the district office and that would be good for the school!

Each time I was assaulted he had to cover up the crime Two gay-bashings would not look good on his resume. Kevin McCormack, was up for tenure and he did not want any of this to show on his record. He was also due his next promotion as soon as he put in the minimum amount of time as a principal.
He knew he could get away with not following the Chancellor’s Regulations and violating NY State Law because the same cronies in city government who were running patronage schemes in District 75 would protect him. After all they had been setting him up promotion after promotion.

Kevin McCormack also has a reputation for being a “very loose cannon“: his buddies had to protect him worried about what information he might let slip about how they operated behind the scenes in the district as a way of saving himself.
The reason an investigation is important at this time is that it will help expose the systematic corruption in School District 75. It was set up as the “Chancellor’s District” to keep it free from the politics in community control. Instead people like Kevin McCormack get almost automatic promotions and are appointed to posts over better qualified candidates.

How did this patronage scheme work? There was a system of quid pro quo skillfully managed by men in the Hibernian Society.

I only had the stomach to attend one Hibernian function. I was dragged there by a woman who wanted to get ahead in District 75,but also I really wanted to see this one! The disgraced Mario Biaggi was their Man of the Year. This St. Patrick’s Day gala was dedicated to celebrating his early release from prison on corruption charges!

After eating the obligatory corned beef and cabbage. I wandered around the large banquet hall. There in a secluded alcove sat the Man of the Year himself. A large group of Hispanic textbook salesmen were lined up to pay homage. I saw one after the other kneel and kiss his ring and then one knelt and placed his hands between Mr. Biaggi’s hands - as in the ancient gesture of pledging fealty to a medieval lord.

After that, someone tapped me on the shoulder and told me I had no business there. I left. However, later many of these salesmen were implicated in a scandal. So, this system of corruption is now clearly multicultural. Like any other pathogen this system of corruption has learned to mutate and change in order to adapt to more challenging environments.

When I first got this appointment to the District Office I was at a family gathering. An Irish aunt dragged me into an empty room. She was a long-time school secretary. She stared at me coldly: “I understand you are now working at the District 75’s central office.”

When I started to tell her about my job making training videos, she stopped me and warned me about the “Murphia”. I laughed because her last name was Murphy and thought she was joking. She gave me a sharp jab right to the center of my chest and said: “Keep your guard up, Larry! They pretend it is something cute they are pulling off there, but there is nothing cute about corruption. ”

After years of torment trying to get someone in New York City government to look into Kevin McCormack’s cover up of my assaults, nothing has happened. Complaint after complaint gets cutely side-tracked. My latest complaint and sworn affidavit have now made another set of rounds from bureau to bureau. It has wound up again in an office where they can do little about it!

I think I need somebody outside of New York City government to look into the corruption in District 75, the New York school system and the government itself.
I have seen reform after reform try to eliminate corruption in New York.

After they make reforms on the top and put tight controls as to what happens with then people who deal directly with the public, the corruption goes on. It is like dry rot. The top surface is clean, the bottom clear, but in the middle layers there is corrosion and decay. You have to understand that all the corruption that remains in New York City lies deep in the hidden levels of middle management the public rarely sees.

Small Potatos

Well not only am I dealing with what some would call “small potatoes” in the grander scheme of things. They are also cold potatoes, sitting on the plate too long. However, like rotten produce thrown at politicians for countless millennium, let’s see if they can act as an agent of change – or at least get their notice.