Calls Accusations Baseless
Union Hits Gotbaum School Agent Slam

By MEREDITH KOLODNER

The union representing School Safety Agents is firing back at the New York Civil Liberties Union and Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum for "unsubstantiated" abuse accusations.

GREGORY FLOYD: Claims hurt safety staff.

The NYCLU released a report March 18 accusing the city of over-policing public schools and detailing accounts from students of mistreatment by SSAs. Ms. Gotbaum, citing the report and the March 17 melee involving high school students at the PSAL basketball championship game at Madison Square Garden, is calling for greater supervision of SSAs and for the Civilian Complaint Review Board to handle complaints against them.

Faults DOE

Ms. Gotbaum says that the main culprit is the Department of Education, claiming it has failed to handle school safety issues properly, including the recent allegations of abuse on school buses. Union officials say their members have gotten caught in the cross-fire and are being attacked unfairly.

"People who are putting these reports together really have no idea what goes on in public schools," said Gregory Floyd, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 237, which represents SSAs. "It completely undermines School Safety Agents and sends a message to students that they don't have to listen to them."

The Chief-Leader/Adrienne Haywood-James BRINGING HEAT, AND GETTING SOME: Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, who held a press conference March 21 with school parent Victoria Murganti and City Councilman Robert Jackson about school safety, was criticized by a union leader who claimed she was undermining and unfairly attacking School Safety Agents.

NYCLU officials said their main beef was with city officials.

"It's unfortunate that the union sees this as an attack on individual School Safety Agents," said Donna Lieberman, the executive director of NYCLU. "The point of the report is to harshly criticize the message coming from the highest levels - the Mayor, and Chancellor and the [Police] Commissioner."

Ms. Lieberman said that SSA agents, who are now under the Police Department, should be put back under the purview of DOE.

NYPD Good Partner

"It is absolutely the wrong thing to put the Police Department in charge of every aspect of school safety," she said. "School discipline is in the first instance an educational matter."

But Mr. Floyd said that the Police Department had been an excellent partner in school safety matters and that any allegations of abuse should be reported to the Department which would investigate thoroughly, not the CCRB.

NYLCU and Ms. Gotbaum point to an incident caught on videotape in which an SSA is allegedly beating a student outside Madison Square Garden who got caught in the melee as an example of mistreatment. But Mr. Floyd said blame for the chaos that day lies at the advocates' feet for their efforts to solicit abuse accusations from students.

"I think the results of [NYCLU's] canvassing were witnessed at Madison Square Garden," he said. "NYCLU, backed by Ms. Gotbaum, has given the students carte blanche to act however they want. I see them as linked."

In response to the NYCLU report, which also documents the impact of metal detectors on students and other measures they assert are "criminalizing the classroom," DOE officials said their safety tactics are not limited to law-and-order measures.

Cites Positive Steps

"The DOE has implemented an approach to school safety that integrates anger management, conflict resolution, strategies to encourage positive student compliance with school rules, bullying prevention and intervention, and a careful, collaborative relationship with law enforcement," DOE officials said in a statement.

But Ms. Gotbaum, citing school bus safety issues, the alleged rape of an 8-year-old girl by a school custodian and reports of abuse by School Safety Agents all within the past month, said DOE was failing city students.

"What I'm saying is that at the Department, there's nobody in charge of school safety and accountable for what's going on," she said at a March 21 press conference. "Abuse is abuse wherever it happens, and when it happens, it needs to be attended to very quickly."

A day later, however, one of the incidents cited by Ms. Gotbaum was upended when the School Custodian was released from jail because of inconsistencies in the girl's story. All charges against him have since been dropped.

Ms. Gotbaum called for DOE to include the Administration for Children's Services and the NYPD in all cases of reported abuse and said the number of investigators at the DOE's Office of Pupil Transportation should be tripled from the current seven on staff.

Klein's Bus Response

School Chancellor Joel I. Klein announced March 23 that he was initiating an overhaul of the city's school bus abuse investigation procedures. He said he was planning to hire more investigators and that he had fired the director of contract compliance, who was in charge of keeping records of abuse complaints.

City Council Education Committee Chair Robert Jackson announced he would hold a hearing April 11 on the school bus abuse allegations, which were brought to light by a Daily News investigation.

Mr. Floyd said that the issues surrounding school buses and safety agents were distinct, and that Ms. Gotbaum owed School Safety Agents an apology for her "knee-jerk reaction."

"For an elected official, a former city commissioner and the wife of a labor leader," he said, "I would expect that she should have done more research before making such comments. You cannot link everything together."