Another School Employee of the Year Candidate

[Texsox]

:headshake Strip Searched Special Ed Kids

 

A Bronx school employee forced four fourth-grade boys, accused of stealing a teacher's ring, to strip to their underwear and jump up and down, the boys' parents alleged in a federal lawsuit Monday.

 

The parents said the boys were pulled from a gym class at PS 186X, a special education school, and taken to a private room. There, the mothers said, Julio Passaro, who worked as a liaison between parents and the school, intimidated the boys about going to jail if they didn't cooperate with the search.

 

The women appeared with their attorneys Monday at a Manhattan news conference to announce the filing of a civil suit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan seeking unspecified punitive and compensatory damages.

 

Ilann Maazel, one of the attorneys, said the search was illegal and violated the chancellor's regulations as well as the boys' Constitutional rights.

 

"Mr. Passaro, one by one, strip-searched each of the children to their underwear," Maazel said. "He had them take off their pants, their shirts, their socks, their shoes and he searched them."

 

The mothers, who wanted to be identified only by their first names in order to protect the identities of their children, two of whom are 10 and two of whom are 11, said the incident happened April 2 at the Walter J. Damrosch School on Jennings Street.

 

According to the complaint and the women, the episode began when a teacher apparently misplaced her ring. She asked all the students if they took the ring, and no one responded, including the four boys. Later that day, the four boys were pulled from a gym class and taken to a second-floor "time out" room, where Passaro instructed them to take off their clothes.

 

"He told my son that if he didn't take his clothes off he would go to jail," said Carrie, mother of I.M. She called for stiff punishment.

 

"What happened to our children was horrendous," she said. "I feel he should he terminated for what he did."

 

The Department of Education said the "accused family worker" has since been rassigned to administrative duties.

 

"The allegation is being investigated by the Chancellor's Office of Special Investigations," the statement said, without elaborating. "Further disciplinary action is pending the outcome of the investigation."

 

Two of the boys has since transferred to another school and two others are presently seeking permission to transfer, their mothers said.

 

Maazel said it was unclear if the ring was ever recovered.

 

Staff writer Ellen Yan contributed to this story.

 

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