In this episode of “Try to Control Your Shock and Amazement”…
Assuming the alleged perpetrators are Democrats, that is.
Investigators allege that six Biden-Harris Department of Education employees used “forged permission slips” to take their own children and grandchildren on New York City-funded trips to Disney World and on other trips planned for homeless and underprivileged kids, as exclusively reported by The New York Post.
The secret perks robbed some of the city’s most disadvantaged kids of a chance to enjoy the Magic Kingdom — a trip that cost $66,000 for 50 or so adults and kids, a staffer said — and other multiple-day trips in 2016 to 2019 to Washington, D.C; New Orleans; Boston; upstate Rocking Horse Ranch Resort; and Frost Valley YMCA campground, according to a newly released report by the Special Commissioner of Investigation for city schools.
See why I’m assuming the employees are Democrats?
Look, I know Republicans aren’t saints, but this level of contemptible hypocrisy smacks of my longtime mantra: The left’s depth of hypocrisy knows no bounds.
In one example, Linda M. Wilson, a Queens, N.Y. supervisor of DOE’s “Students in Temporary Housing,” not only took her own two daughters on multiple trips; she also encouraged her colleagues to take their kids and grandkids, but tried to cover up the despicable practice when the Special Commissioner of Investigation for city schools started asking questions, according to the SCI report.
Wilson allegedly told her co-workers: “What happens here stays with us.” Those co-workers later told SCI: “She told us to lie to investigators.” Oops.
What happens in Disney stays in Disney: NYC educrats took own kids to Magic Kingdom on trips meant for homeless students https://t.co/diuf1BNxJG pic.twitter.com/YBZCOeBMnM
— New York Post (@nypost) September 15, 2024
Here’s more:
One DOE educator “had to beg Wilson to allow him to add two of his students” on a trip to Disney World while Wilson and several staffers she supervised brought family members, the SCI said.
“Taking money meant for homeless students is extremely inappropriate,” said Naveed Hasan, a Manhattan public-school parent and member of the city’s Panel for Educational Policy who advocates for students in need of housing. “I’m shocked.”
Family members are not allowed on field trips, even if the DOE is reimbursed for their expenses, Chancellor’s rules state.
Wilson and other staffers used the names of homeless students to fabricate permission slips, then forged parent signatures on the paperwork, witnesses told investigators.
“Few of the homeless students listed on the paperwork actually attended the trips,” a whistleblower told the SCI.
Naveed Hasan might have been “shocked,” but I was far from it.
What kind of person, whose job is to supervise children in temporary housing, takes her own kids to the Magic Kingdom and on other trips at the expense of homeless kids? That takes a “special” level of selfishness and hypocrisy.
More:
The city paid for the trips with a $300,000 federal grant from the National Center for Homeless Education meant to give kids enrichment and incentives to improve their attendance or academics.
Wilson supervised about 20 staffers who worked with students in temporary housing, defined as those living in a shelter, car, park or abandoned building.
Last year, a record 119,320 NYC students — roughly one in nine kids enrolled in public schools — experienced homelessness, according to Advocates for Children of New York.
Most out-of-town trips included four to six staff members as chaperones, and one or two buses for about 30 kids each, the SCI report says.
The buses alone cost roughly $2,700 each per local or regional trip. Trips to Disney World were via train.
Any guesses who decided which staff members could attend a trip? And, who also assigned students to each staff member to chaperone, only to replace spots assigned for those disadvantaged students with staff members’ kids?
Yep, Linda Wilson.
It gets worse.
Wilson planned trips to colleges, including Washington D.C.’s Howard University in 2019, purportedly so homeless kids could tour campuses. But she didn’t contact the colleges to arrange visits, the SCI alleges.
On a three-day trip purportedly to see Syracuse University in June 2018, the DOE group only ate lunch on the upstate campus, the report says. Then they left for Niagara Falls, more than three hours away.
School and family aide Mishawn Jack, who took two daughters to the Broadway show “Wicked” and on a trip to Washington, D.C., agreed to pay a $1,200 fine — reduced from $3,000 due to “financial hardship.”
After planning numerous trips, Wilson abruptly canceled a visit to Philadelphia in 2018 when she was required to process the payments for trips directly through the DOE, instead of going through a contractor.
Wilson, whose last salary was $99,726, brought one or two of her daughters on trips, the SCI said.
So Linda Wilson makes a hundred grand a year, yet has the obscene audacity to rob homeless and underprivileged kids of the trip of their lifetime. Go figure.
