Mamaroneck parents without guidance
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- November
- 21
For those who don’t know the back story, here is a reason many parents are upset about the mystery surrounding the two guidance counselors who have been administratively reassigned.
A former music teacher at Hommocks Middle School, Omar Rodriguez, pleaded guilty in February to statutory rape and child endangerment.
Hired by the district in 2004, he was arrested in 2006 after several students accused him of rubbing and hugging them behind closed doors in his classroom. After the arrest, a Connecticut girl came forward to say he raped her while she was singing in the church choir he directed.
Two of the students’ families have sued, saying the warning signs were there and district officials had been negligent.
I bet the Rodriguez case is a subtext of school Superintendent Paul Fried’s letter to parents.
It’s in one sentence: “First, and most importantly, I do want you to know that at this time I have no reason to believe that the health and safety of any child has been put at risk.”
I think that sounds like an attempt to be reassuring. It makes me wonder if, whatever this is, it doesn’t involve the counselors’ interactions with students.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, November 21st, 2007 at 12:38 pm by Lanning Taliaferro.
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I must say that I am not at all surprised to see this happening at Hommocks yet again. This is a common theme at this school. There are bad things that happen at this school. This principal plays favorites, and at his whim, chooses who will be consistently on the�outs� among the faculty. It should be noted that one of his “favorites� was, for some time, none other than Omar Rodriguez himself. Nobody can explain or figure out why this principal does what he does, or makes the decisions that he makes when it comes to personnel/staffing. It is actually quite arbitrary and juvenile. Worst of all, this has nothing to do with the children.
It is more than unfortunate that Dr. Weitzman blatantly refuses to listen to, or fairly respond, to his own faculty’s pleas for fairness and change when it comes to how they are treated. It certainly cannot be a very happy/comfortable place to be employed. Isn’t that what schools are supposed to foster? The principal does not practice what he preaches. The faculty are either fearful of his “mysterious� reasons for making good, caring people disappear- or have become so numb from being beaten down- that they figure there is nothing that they can do.
These teachers ( some) have become so paralyzed by the on-goings that it is the children who suffer. The children suffer because the teachers are constantly looking over their shoulders to make sure they will not be randomly targeted. They suffer because the teachers who the district should be happy to have and keep ( obviously NOT sex offenders) are arm- twisted so badly, that they eventually leave. It is the children who suffer when morale at the school is so damn low. No amount of theme days or ice-cream socials are going to fix that.
Why is this administration so teflon, as someone asked above? When certain things, such as this guidance counselor incident come to light, people comment- but nothing ever changes. If people knew what went on, and what was said by and about grown adults behind closed doors, they would be outraged. And they should be. I would guess that these counselors are absolutely being made the targets of one of Dr. Weitzman’s new little vendettas- being made examples to “frighten� the rest of the faculty into silence.
Why is that in other districts administrators are held directly responsible for things that go so grossly awry?
Based on the ignorance of people’s knowledge of education law, thank heaven average people don’t influence policy. Do the current guidance counselors feel guilty that their predecessors let the pupils down? They should.
Is that why they have apparently attacked the current couselors? It doesn’t matter. It only matters what Denhoff and Hirose did. If even one of them admits the truth, the children will win. If both of them lie, that is a different story…....
I am in complete agreement with what the November 24 commenter said. In summary, Haruko Hirose and Elizabeth Denhoff are great people and great counselors. It is really a sad situation that the Hommocks is pushing their own issues off onto the laps of two great people, whose priorities are first and foremost, the children they work with on a daily basis. It is really unfortunate that the school has their own set agenda, an agenda that does not concern the students they pledge to support.