City DOE probing Marilyn Monroe-themed drag show at NYC special needs school: ‘How do we know another kid won’t flash someone?’
Some like it hot — but not this hot.
A Staten Island special-needs school is under fire for allowing a teacher in drag to perform a racy, Marilyn Monroe-themed skit at a talent show in front of the young disabled students.
The Department of Education is now probing the June 22 act at the Richard H. Hungerford School, in which the male educator donned a white dress and mimicked the iconic scene from Monroe’s 1955 flick “The Seven Year Itch” — complete with his skirt getting blown up in the air and his underwear being exposed.
“I’ve never been more horrified, sickened and ashamed of my profession,” one educator commented on Instagram about the act. “THIS CANNOT BE TOLERATED.”
Another commenter fumed: “So, if I were a DOE employee and I decided to show my students my underwear, what would happen to me? Beyond disgusting and I hope these parents take action.”
Video posted on Instagram shows paraprofessional school staffer William Boyle prancing on stage during the talent show to Sheryl Crow’s tune “A Change Would Do You Good,” then changing into a Monroe-like white dress and blonde wig.
Boyle’s skirt then blows upward, revealing his dark-colored underwear and raising eyebrows.
“It’s like they’re forcing them to learn about this,” mom Gina Billera, whose 14-year-old non-verbal autistic son attends the school, told The Post. “These kids are still young. They shouldn’t be forced to understand this yet. And they’re special needs kids who may not grasp what’s happening.
“They like to mimic and copy,” Billera added. “How do we know that another kid won’t flash someone?”
Big Apple pols were also shocked by the performance.
“It’s hard to imagine any plausible excuse considering the audience consists of special needs students born decades after Marilyn Monrow died,” city Councilman Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island) told The Post. “Nor can I imagine any other scenario where a staff member can show a student their underwear.”
State Sen. Andrew Lanza called the performance “warped.”
“I don’t know when adults stopped acting like adults, when it became fashionable in the workplace to be on their own personal mission,” Lanza said. “We went from the MeToo era to MeOnly.
Boyle and Hungerford Principal Kristin McHugh did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The school’s mission on its website says the school is dedicated to “rigorous, individualized educational programs to students with significant challenges and diverse learning styles in a variety of settings that nurture independence, ensue [sic] dignity and support integration into the community.”
In a statement Thursday, the New York City Special Commissioner of Investigation, the independent watchdog for city schools, said it was “aware of the allegation and we will handle this appropriately.”
Nonetheless, parents and pols alike gave the school high marks for academic excellence — and some parents were sticking behind Boyle’s skirt-raising stunt.
“He’s wonderful with the kids and has taught so many of them really good things,” one Hungerford parent wrote online. “If you don’t go to the school, jump back off the bandwagon and mind your own business.
“Taking this guy down is not going to help anyone,” she said.
