Posted on 08/07/2007 2:16:40 PM PDT by LurkedLongEnough
NEW YORK (AP) -- A public school principal accused of performing religious rituals with candles, incense and chicken blood in an attempt to cleanse her high school of negative energy has been reassigned and will be fired, the Department of Education said Tuesday.
Maritza Tamayo, principal of the Unity Center for Urban Technologies, paid a woman named Gilda Fonte to lead several Santeria rituals at the Manhattan school during midwinter break in 2006, when students were not there, according to Richard Condon, the special commissioner of investigation for city schools. Tamayo coerced staff members to participate in and help pay for the cost of the ceremonies, investigators said.
Santeria is a blend of traditional African religions and Catholicism and first was practiced in the Caribbean by slaves who were prohibited from worshipping in other religions.
Tamayo also paid Fonte to shuttle students in her personal car from their homes to off-campus English and math Regents exams without parental permission and made teachers cover part of the transportation costs, investigators said.
A former assistant principal, Melody Crooks-Simpson, said there was a running joke at the school that sage should be used to cleanse the building because many of the students were ill-behaved. But it seems Tamayo took it seriously, Crooks-Simpson told investigators, and had Fonte lead a ceremony at which she sprinkled chicken blood on the building.
Crooks-Simpson told investigators she didn't attend that ceremony but showed up to school a few days later in a white dress to participate in another ceremony because Tamayo said it wouldn't work without her. She said she was charged $900 by Tamayo for the rite.
Another teacher saw Tamayo, Fonte and another woman, wearing white dresses, performing a ritual at the school while Fonte balanced a silver tray with 40 lit candles on her head, said investigators, who were tipped in February by an anonymous caller who accused Tamayo of misconduct.
The commissioner's report recommended that Tamayo be fired and made ineligible to work in the Department of Education. It said the current assistant principal, Ira Simmonds, should be disciplined because he knew about the students being transported by Fonte.
Telephone calls to Tamayo's home were unanswered Tuesday. But in the report, Tamayo denied taking part in a religious ceremony at the school and said the $900 paid to her by Crooks-Simpson was for a vacation they took together with their families.
Fonte told investigators she did not practice Santeria. There was no telephone listing for her.
The problem wasn't that Tamayo was performing bizarre religious rituals but that she was coercing her staff to participate, Condon said.
"Had she hired a priest to sprinkle holy water on the building, and she coerced the assistant principal into paying for it and attending it, I would have a problem with it,'' Condon said.
He said it was up to the Department of Education to decide whether religious ceremonies were appropriate for schools, even when students weren't there.
Department of Education spokeswoman Margie Feinberg said that Tamayo would be reassigned immediately and was going to be fired. She said that Simmonds would be disciplined.
She wouldn't comment on the religious aspect of the story.
There was no answer at the school, which is out for the summer. Students report back after Labor Day. A message left at Simmonds' home was not returned.
Tamayo had been the principal since 1997 at the school of about 200 students. She earned $133,998 annually; she taught Spanish and served as an assistant principal at other public schools.
since she was fired, can we say the ritual worked?
Disgusting. Probably democrats. Certainly union members.
(Do I need to say -- sarcasm off?)
It will be a good sign if just one person gets fired for cause. But it ain't a done deal, yet.
Congressman Billybob
Where do they find these nuts?
She should have instead allowed a few imams come and talk to the children about a religion which claims Jews are animals deserving of extinction and women are kept enslaved and covered up for fear of exposing a speck of skin. That way, no problem.
Tamayo had been the principal since 1997 at the school of about 200 students. She earned $133,998 annually;
She was paid $669.99 per student! That doesn't include the costs associated with other employees, insurance, supplies, utilities, grounds-keeping and maintenance.
Public schools are the absolute biggest wasters of tax money, and that is saying a lot when you understand how wasteful other bureaucrats are.
People get quite upset with me because I absolutely hate public education and hold very little but contempt for anyone working in it these days.
I know this will upset a number of people, saying what I just did, but it has occurred to me that people who work in public education today have had to accept far too much indecency just to hold their jobs.
The curicula, the books, the userping of perental rights, the rewriting of history and the omissions of it... I could go on and everyone should know it.
I honestly think we would be far better off if we closed all schools and university for twelve months to restructure the whole system including reviewing who is fit and unfit to work in it, and what is fit and unfit to teach there.
How much more do we need to see, to know this pile of rotting manure cannot be healthy for our children’s and our nation’s future?
You would be surprised how many Cubans give some credence to Santería.
Other than a few naively idealistic, upper middle class, recent college grads -- who see the light within a year or two and quit -- nuts are the only kind of people who apply for jobs in the NYC public school system.
NYC Principal to be Fired Over School Chicken Blood Ritual (Santería)
just wait until the muzzie (madrassa) school opens this september....someone will be guaranteed to lose their head!!!!
celebrate pc diversity ~ always at the taxpayers’ expense!!!
I’m a public school teacher.
I accept no indecency.
I also teach my students to avoid broad generalizations and either/or thinking.
When asked for her side of the story, Tamayo replied “I don’t practice Santeria, I ain’t got no crystal ball”
Hellooooo! Is this still the United States of America????
I agree 100%!!
I am furious...furious that they did not bring this woman to Washington to do the Santeria ritual on the Congressional Halls!!!!THAT”S where we need the chicken blood!
Santeria as a religion is banned?
Do followers of this religion advocate killing all others that do not follow it?
Do followers of this religion go around the world causing trouble where ever it is behind other religions?
As a Christian this religion is not the true way BUT it is a much more benevolent and true religion then one that advocates killing those that do not follow it, or practice it.
I.E. islam.
Ain’t multiculturalism grand.
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