Heads are going to roll at the Harlem school where alleged sexual attacks occurred recently on kids as young as 7 years old, interim Schools Chancellor Harold Levy said last night.
“You haven’t heard the last of what’s going to happen at PS 200,” vowed Levy. “I expect to take action.”
The school has been the site of separate reported horror attacks on a 7-year-old girl and a 9-year-old girl – allegedly by 7- and 12-year-old male students.
Levy blamed school officials, not the police, for allowing the incidents to occur.
“Reports that there are multiple incidents like this in a school building outrages me,” Levy said, speaking at a town meeting for the Principals for a Day program at Bayard Rustin HS in Chelsea. “What happened at PS 200 is not the fault of the police, it’s our fault.”
Speaking a day after he announced he was throwing his hat in the ring to become the permanent schools chancellor, Levy also:
* Defended having his own two kids enrolled in the posh, private Dalton School in Manhattan – and said he won’t decide to move them based on whether he lands the top public-schools post.
“How you decide where to put your kids has to do with your kids. It’s where you think there’s a fit,” he said. “Where you put your kids, in my mind, is a secondary issue” to getting the job.
* Said he’s seriously scrutinizing all school programs – and “that means winnowing down some,” if he becomes permanent chancellor.
He also called the Board of Education “an antique structure” and said he would weigh changing the budget process and schools’ core curricula.
* Fielded gripes from visiting guests participating in the Principals for a Day program.
“The kids are really bright, but there’s still a problem with overcrowding,” said folk singer Suzanne Vega, who sat in as “principal” at PS 163 in Brooklyn.
She added that the school didn’t even have any clocks that work.
Sixteen other guest principals said their schools also had clocks that didn’t work.
Other complaints centered on run-down facilities, underpaid teachers and lack of textbooks for kids.