SCHOOL SEX CASES ON RISE

1-8-2008 New York:

Sexual misconduct by public-school staff more than doubled between 2002 and 2007, mirroring a dramatic jump in overall wrongdoing uncovered by city school investigators.

Special Schools Investigator Richard Condon said yesterday that his probers received more complaints and substantiated more cases against school workers in 2007 than in any year since the office was created in 1992.

Since 2002, the number of allegations confirmed jumped by 135 percent - from 131 to 308 - and the number of complaints rose by nearly 50 percent - from 1,889 to 2,818.

The surge included an 18 percent jump since 2006 in the number of verified cases and a 10 percent climb in total complaints.

Of the cases substantiated in 2007, 95 were sexual in nature, including that of a 22-year-old Bronx school aide accused of having sex with a 13-year-old girl.

In all, Condon last year called for 186 staff members to be put on the Department of Education's list of ineligible workers.

He attributed the rise in complaints, in part, to his office's getting "a fair amount of publicity over the last several years - so there's an awareness."

He said the numbers were also spurred by the larger pool of Education Department workers and by the mounting fear of prosecution for failing to report school misconduct.

"We're fairly rigorous about charging someone if they mishandle a complaint," said Condon, whose office has an annual budget of about $4 million and employs seven lawyers and 45 investigators, many of them former police detectives.

Among the more sensational cases last year was that of a principal accused of hosting a Santeria ceremony at her lower Manhattan high school in an attempt to cleanse the building of negative energy.

Education Department spokeswoman Margie Feinberg commended Condon and his investigators.

"Increased complaints are a good thing when they reflect greater awareness about these incidents and the greater comfort people have in making complaints," she said. ..more.. by YOAV GONEN Education Reporter