Tag Archives: Public School

News, Politics, Government

Slavery-math questions cause uproar at NYC school

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A New York City principal says she’s “appalled” by a homework assignment that used scenarios about killing and whipping slaves to teach math.

The Daily News (http://nydn.us/YfTNgU ) says Principal Adele Schroeter has ordered sensitivity training for the entire staff of Public School 59 in Manhattan.

Education officials say a teacher asked fourth-graders to write homework questions that blended math and social studies. The teacher then used the students’ questions, including the slave-related ones, as homework for the class.

One question stated the number of slaves who died while taking over a ship. It asked how many slaves were still alive. The other said a slave was whipped five times a day and asked students to calculate how many times a month he was whipped.

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Information from: Daily News, http://www.nydailynews.com

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News, Politics, Government

New York City school bus strike ends after a month

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The monthlong school bus strike that affected tens of thousands of children in the nation’s largest school district ended Friday, after union leaders were assured by prospective New York City mayoral candidates that their concerns would be heard after this year’s election.

Leaders of the Amalgamated Transit Union said service for New York City schools would resume Wednesday, after classes resume after the President Day holiday.

Some 8,000 bus drivers and aides walked off the job Jan. 16 over job protection issues. Local 1181 of the ATU wanted the city to include protections for current employees in future contracts with bus companies, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg said a court ruling prohibited the city from doing so.

“Though our strike has been suspended, the principles that we fight for remain pressing issues that the city will have to address,” said local union president Michael Cordiello.

The school bus strike was the first in the city since 1979. About 5,000 of the city’s 7,700 routes were affected.

Just 152,000 of New York City‘s 1.1 million public schoolchildren ride yellow school buses but the cost of busing students has risen from $100 million in 1979 to $1.1 billion today.

On Thursday, five Democrats vying for the nomination to succeed Bloomberg as mayor next year sent the union a letter asking drivers to return to work. The candidates called on the bus drivers “to return to their jobs and continue the battle in other ways.”

The candidates — City Council speaker Christine Quinn, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, City Comptroller John Liu, former City Comptroller Bill Thompson and former Councilman Sal Albanese — said that if elected they will revisit the job security issue.

Larry Hanley, the union’s international president, said in a statement Friday that he was encouraged by the letter. “We view this request to suspend the current strike as an earnest effort on behalf of the city, its children and its workers,” Hanley said. “I will be discussing options this afternoon and evening with the leaders and members of Local 1181.”

The strike’s end was a victory for Bloomberg, who insisted that the city must seek new bus contracts to cut costs. Bloomberg and schools Chancellor Dennis Wolcott praised the decision Friday.

“We appreciate the hard work our bus drivers and matrons do and we welcome them back to the job,” Bloomberg said in a statement. “In the city’s entire history, the special interests have never had less power than they do today, and the end of this strike reflects the fact that when we say we put children first, we mean it.”

Union leaders said they were “dismayed” by the Bloomberg administration, which didn’t help bring the strike to a close.

The strike has affected more than 100,000 schoolchildren, many of them disabled. Parents and students said Friday they would welcome the walkout’s end.

Gwendolyn Hamilton was recruited to ferry two of her grandchildren to different schools on Staten Island. “I’ll be so glad it’s over, you don’t know,” Hamilton said, flashing a broad smile.

Her grandson Tyshon Ellzy transferred to Public School 20 …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News

News, Politics, Government

New York City teacher's aide pleads guilty to filming child porn at school

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A teachers’ aide in a Brooklyn elementary school faces up to 50 years in jail after pleading guilty to filming child pornography in the classroom where he worked.

Taleek Brooks, 42, pleaded guilty Friday to charges of producing and distributing the illegal materials before a judge at a federal court in the New York City borough.

Brooks, who works as an aide at Public School 243, was accused of having “regularly downloaded and distributed videos and images depicting child pornography over the Internet through a peer-to-peer file sharing program,” the FBI said.

In December 2001, Brooks accepted a friend request on the peer-to-peer network. That person was an undercover agent who was able to access and download graphic videos and images.

The next month, agents moved on Brooks’ home with a warrant and confiscated a computer and two external hard drives. During their investigation of the equipment, agents found hundreds of video and images depicting child pornography.

A forensic look at the equipment uncovered a folder labeled “special,” where they found a video in which Brooks can be heard giving directions to a young child to perform explicit sexual acts.

Investigators later confirmed that the child was a student and PS 243 and that the video was made on school grounds, the statement said.

Brooks will be sentenced in May.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News

News, Politics, Government

NYC firm hit hard on 9/11 gives $10M in Sandy aid

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The New York City brokerage firm that lost 658 employees in the Sept. 11 terror attacks announced that it will “adopt” 19 schools in communities hit hard by Superstorm Sandy and will give each family in those schools $1,000 to spend as they see fit.

Cantor Fitzgerald, its relief fund and its affiliate BGC Partners will donate a total of $10 million to the families in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, Long Island and New Jersey.

Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick said each family will receive a debit card with $1,000 on it.

Lutnick said he learned after Cantor’s devastating loss of so many employees with young children that help should come with no strings attached.

“The best way to take care of a family is to put money in the hands of the parents and let them decide what to do,” he said. “Maybe they need a couch and maybe they need to go to Toys R Us and buy their kids a present.”

Cantor Fitzgerald‘s headquarters on the 101st through 105th floors of One World Trade Center were destroyed when terrorists struck the tower, and the company lost two-thirds of its New York work force. Lutnick was not in the office but his brother Gary was killed. The company’s death toll was by far the largest of any single employer.

The Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund run by Lutnick’s sister Edie was established to aid the families of Cantor employees lost on Sept. 11 but its scope has since expanded to include scores of charities around the world.

Each year on Sept. 11 the company donates the day’s revenues to charity and employees donate their day’s pay. The effort raised $12 million last September.

“We wanted to have a way that we could memorialize those that we lost in a way that was positive, and to do good things,” Edie Lutnick said.

She said that when Sandy hit the region last October the relief fund immediately wanted to help. The schools selected for aid are in areas where Cantor employees live or have other connections.

“We’re really excited that we have the opportunity to help the families from these 19 schools to let them know that communities matter and that we care,” Edie Lutnick said.

The Lutnicks were to join U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.) and other officials at Public School 256 in Far Rockaway on Thursday to hand out the first cash cards.

Cantor Fitzgerald has been affected by Sandy itself. The firm moved its headquarters to midtown after the 2001 attacks but it had more than 500 employees at an office on Water Street in lower Manhattan when the storm hit. They relocated to Cantor’s other offices, Howard Lutnick said. The Water Street site has still not reopened.

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News