Harlem principal got tenure after deadly beach trip where student Nicole Suriel drowned

[proud2BlibKansan]

Please stop blaming teachers. Here is a graphic example of how administrators get away with screw ups while teachers get fired. A principal's JOB is to ensure the safety of ALL the kids while they are at school or school events. This one really screwed up and a little girl DIED.

Under the proper conditions, with the appropriate degree of preparation and caution, I would probably agree that a school principal should not be dismissed when a tragic accident occurs out of his/her control. In this instance, however, there appears to have been something of a pattern of laxness, at least with regard to these class trips, as witnessed by the lack of parent-signed permission slips documented now on at least two occasions.

Likely those slips would not have made a difference in the final tragedy, but there IS something else Mr. Maldonado-Rivera should have done that WOULD perhaps have made a difference: intervene in the trip plan. Sending 25 or so students out to an ocean beach, accompanied by a first-year teacher, a 19-year-old intern, and the teacher's boyfriend(!!!) does not in my mind constitute anything remotely close to due care and precaution. If parents had known that this trio constituted their children's entire cohort of chaperones, some might have voiced concern to the school. Regardless, Mr. Maldonado-Rivera's job is to ensure that the chaperoning is adequate to the event, and in this case, it was patently not. The potential for trouble could easily have been foreseen and should have been, due to the small number of chaperones, their inexperience, and the fact that one of them did not even know how to swim. Mr. Maldonado-Rivera's failure to insist on more, or at least more experienced and mature chaperones (and ones who could swim) appears at minimum to have been a direct contributor to the tragedy. He may well be a wonderful school principal, but he also seems to have fostered a dangerously casual attitude toward procedures and safety, one that seems to have at least contributed to a young girl's needless, accidental death.

The DOE response, that "In the heartbreaking days following Nicole's death our primary focus was not on the tenure status of Columbia Secondary School officials" is ridiculous and belied by their own actions, since it certainly didn't take them long to focus on the employment status of the teacher (now fired) and the AP (now demoted from administration back to being "just" a teacher).

In Joel Klein's DOE, there's only accountability when it serves their interests or promotes their agenda. Nice work if you can get it.

http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/2010/07/harlem-principal-got-tenure-after.html

[NJmaverick]

1. The teacher was WRONG and was the one that really screwed up

HARLEM — A first-year teacher was reportedly fired Wednesday after a city probe revealed that she let students who couldn't swim into the water during a beach field trip last month that ended in the drowning of 12-year-old Nicole Suriel.
Erin Bailey, a 26-year-old teacher at Columbia Secondary School who told her students, "If you can't swim, don't go in the water past your waist," was fired Wednesday, according to the Wall Street Journal. The school's assistant principal, Andrew Stillman, was demoted and its principal, Jose Maldonado-Rivera, was reprimanded.


Read more: http://dnainfo.com/20100714/central-harlem/nicole-suriels-death-result-of-poor-judgement-by-harlem-school#ixzz0txksglDr

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. The principal approved the trip in the first place

One of the three chaperones couldn't swim.

Yes the teacher should have been fired but the principal should have been terminated as well. She was a first year teacher. I can't imagine how stupid an administrator has to be (and I have known some VERY stupid ones) to allow a first year teacher to take 12 year olds to the beach with no other certified teachers along. That stupid really burns.

And to top it off not only was he not fired, but he was tenured?!

[NJmaverick]

5. This teacher was a former life guard

so one would think that a former life guard could be trusted to take 25 12 year olds to the beach (with the assistance of two other adults).

[NJmaverick]

6. This teacher was a former life guard

so one would think that a former life guard could be trusted to take 25 12 year olds to the beach (with the assistance of two other adults).

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. Doesn't matter

There still weren't enough adults on the trip. And she was still a first year teacher.

[BrklynLiberal]

2. There certainly was enough negligence to be shared by EVERYONE..principal included.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. Agreed

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

10. Exactly. :(

[msongs]

8. ummm why are they going to the beach in the first place? nt

[TwilightGardener]

9. That's crazy. They were ASKING for a drowning. Of all the places for a field trip.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

11. I spent much of my childhood going to south shore Long Island beaches and when

I heard about this, it just didn't compute. The surf can be furious. The idiocy of all involved cost the life of a child.

The buck has to stop somewhere, and the principal should be canned.

[TwilightGardener]

12. My husband, son and I were wading across sand bars in Florida, seemed shallow, and

then my son just went under--silently, right in front of us. One second he was there, the next he was gone. Thank God we were able to search around in front of us and grab him and pull him up. If we hadn't been right there... As you say, it just doesn't compute to take kids to the beach as a school function. Crazy shit. Everyone involved should be canned, especially the principal, who should have overridden the inexperienced teacher's bad judgment.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

14. Someone posted an excellent article here last week on drowning.

Most people do not flail and surface to the top, yelling for help. Not dissimilar to what happened to your son. Thank goodness you were there! :hug:

[TwilightGardener]

16. I think I remember seeing that, and nodding in agreement.

Thanks! :hug:

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

19. You're welcome!

:hi:

[proud2BlibKansan]

17. We have to justify every field trip and relate it to the curriculum

So this trip wouldn't be approved by any principal I've ever worked for.

[Catshrink]

13. This is a tragic accident with plenty of responsibility to go around.

Both the teacher and prinipal who approved this trip should be held accountable. With only one year of teaching, the teacher may not have seen all the potential problems but the presumably more experienced principal should have foreseen the danger in the lack of supervision.

I know some people have trouble getting their heads around this so let me try an analogy:

Would a hospital's chief of staff allow a first year resident to perform a complex surgery without supervision?

[proud2BlibKansan]

18. The VP decided at the last minute not to go on the field trip

He's been demoted to a teaching position.

And the principal was just reprimanded.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

15. How much clearer can this sign be?