By Leslie Albrecht and Ben Fractenberg
Special to DNAinfo
MANHATTAN — Seeking to quell parents' fears over two recent arrests of school employees on sex abuse charges, Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott vowed Friday to weed out and fire Department of Education employees who have any history of sexual misconduct with children on their record.
"We have to make sure we find out who those bad people are and that we remove those bad people," Walcott said Friday after speaking with parents at P.S. 174, a Queens elementary school whose computer teacher was arrested Thursday on charges of fondling two boys.
The teacher, Wilbert Cortez, 49, allegedly touched two students, ages 8 and 9, inappropriately on at least to occasions during the 2010 - 2011 school year, officials said this week. He had been allowed to get the job at the school despite being disciplined in 2000 for inappropriately touching two boys at P.S. 184 in Brownsville, Brooklyn.
A letter was placed in his personnel file, but he was not criminally charged at that time.
Walcott said Friday that the DOE would take immediate steps to prevent such oversights in the future — ordering his office to start combing through all substantiated claims of sexual misconduct with children that have been placed into DOE personnel files dating back to 2000, whether or not they led to criminal charges.
From now on, Walcott added, such disturbing behavior won't end with a letter in an employment file.
"What I'm doing now is upping the ante, and saying if there is any improper touching involved it's not going to (result in) a letter in the file," Walcott said. "They will be removed."
"Moving forward, any individual that's involved in touching a child — and it's substantiated — will be removed," Walcott said.
The incident at P.S. 174 was the second to send shock waves through the city, after a school aide from P.S. 87 on the Upper West Side who also had a known history of inappropriate behavior toward children was arrested last week on sexual abuse charges.
Parents at both schools were shocked and angered to learn that employees with records of disturbing behavior had been allowed to continue working directly with their children.
In a letter to parents, Walcott said the DOE planned to make it easier for schools to see prospective employees' past history when they're hiring them.
"Investigative reports with substantiated findings and disciplinary action will be entered into our system in such a way that pertinent information will be visible to schools for consideration when making hiring decisions," Walcott wrote.
All DOE employees undergo criminal background checks and are fingerprinted so officials are notified if they're arrested in any state, DOE attorney Kathy Rodi told P.S. 87 parents earlier this week. Some parents have said that alert system isn't comprehensive enough.
It didn't stop Gregory Atkins, the 56-year-old teacher's aide, from coming to work at P.S. 87 two years after an investigation determined that he had an inappropriate relationship with a boy at an upper Manhattan middle school.
The Special Comissioner of Investigation recommended that Atkins be disciplined. The principal gave him a verbal reprimand, but no letter was placed in his personnel file, according to DOE.
