Meet the meanest principal in the city.
That’s how teachers and community leaders describe Adele Vocel, head of FDR HS in Brooklyn.
More than three dozen current and former teachers at the highly rated Borough Park school signed formal letters of complaints against Vocel over the past few years.
They charge she was guilty of unprofessional conduct for denying them days off for religious observance, retaliating against them for engaging in union activities and screaming at them in front of students.
And United Federation of Teachers sources said even more would complain – but they’re too scared of the principal.
“We’ve been tyrannized. People are afraid,” said FDR social-studies teacher Anthony Rutigliano.
“Vocel is a malevolent dictator. She enjoys seeing people suffer. She’s anti-everybody, anti-human. She’s like a warden in a jail.”
He said she’s reduced teachers to tears.
Rutigliano in January complained that Vocel violated his rights by rejecting his request to take a day off on the Epiphany on Jan. 6 because he did not produce a letter from a clergyman.
He said she wanted him to take one of his paid “personal” days.
“I was stunned,” he said.
Rutigliano also sued Vocel a few years ago for telling another employer he made anti-Semitic remarks. He said he received a financial settlement from the city.
The accusations come a week after The Post reported that six elected Brooklyn lawmakers urged Schools Chancellor Joel Klein to oust Vocel for allegedly blocking Jewish and other community groups from using FDR’s facilities for after-school events. Klein’s office has since stripped Vocel of her authority over who can rent space.
“We’re reviewing the situation at this point,” said Department of Education spokesman Kevin Ortiz.
Vocel declined comment.
In copies of 30 letters obtained by The Post, FDR staff charge that Vocel:
* Inspected the drawers of a teacher’s desk, an invasion of privacy.
* Grabbed and spun around an assistant principal in the auditorium during a concert.
* Asked the co-director of a school play who was wearing a shirt to promote the show taking place that night, “Do you work in a barn?”
* Berated teachers for being a few minutes late to training sessions.
“This is the worst abuse of a person in authority I’ve encountered during my 21 years in office,” said Assemblyman Dov Hikind.
As for people excusing her behavior because of the school’s performance, Hikind said that’s akin to defending fascism.
“That’s the argument people made for Mussolini – ‘The trains run on time.’ You can’t step on people,” he said.
A MATTER OF PRINCIPAL
Adele Vocel
Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School, Brooklyn
The meanest things she’s done – according to faculty complaints:
* Berated an instructor who coordinated a school blood drive after a technician occupied her parking space.
* Threatened to report a student to immigration authorities.
* Snapped at a teacher for allowing an alumnus to visit her class after the former student suffered a seizure.
* Refused to give a Greek-American teacher a day off to observe the first day of Orthodox Christian Lent.
* Smoked in her office in violation of city law.
* Threatened to punish a Jewish teacher, who did not have tenure, because he didn’t want to teach a class on Saturday.
* Falsely accused a teacher of saying, “I blow up people’s lockers.”
* Reduced a special education student to tears after screaming at her during the Sept. 11 school evacuation.