Members of the Lafayette Chapter UFT should be recognized as wonderful educators. The fact that the DOE failed year after year to address safety issues is brought to light by Sam Freedman's article. Rose DePinto who served as Deputy Supt and later Supt and then head of school safety was directly involved in decision making that failed to address the safety concerns at Lafayette. By 2005 the U.S. Justice Dept forced the DOE into a consent decree which indicates the level of incompetence by the DOE in the failure at Lafayette. Now Dewey and remaining Brooklyn High Schools will have to deal with the type of student that the Lafayette staff has endured. Closing schools is the final chapter of the failure of the DOE/Bloomklein policy of reorganizing their mess. Only additional resources, lower class size, and adherence to their own discipline code will truly remedy the plight of the remaining large Academic High Schools. Good luck to our brothers and sisters at Dewey.
Rick Mangone
Chapter Leader Lafayette H.S.
Commenting by HaloScan
