Pervs on the payroll
MORE THAN a half-dozen high-powered — and highly paid — city education officials remain on the job even after the city paid out more than $1.5 million in settlements over sexual harassment and unequal pay claims involving them since 2014, a Daily News investigation found.
The rogues’ gallery include John Shea, the head of the Department of Education’s Division of School Facilities and six principals who were subjects of at least 11 sexual harassment suits combined. All remain on the job. Heidi Husser, 55, former director of labor relations for the city’s division of school facilities, said that isn’t right.
Husser filed a sexual harassment suit against the city and her boss Shea in 2012 in which she claimed Shea’s office “encouraged a culture of sexism” where women were underpaid and forced to endure vulgar treatment.
In her court filings, Husser stated that Shea told her his nickname was “Mosquito” because his genitals were small and he “could get it done without women knowing they were stung.”
Husser filed an internal complaint against Shea with the Department of Education, but it went nowhere, she said. So she filed the suit.
And when it was settled in 2016 for $525,000 — over equal pay claims after a judge dismissed the sexual harassment claim because it did not meet the threshold of federal employment discrimination law — Husser moved to Florida, leaving the city and school system where she worked for eight years.
By contrast, Shea kept his $206,628 job even as the city settled another suit on his behalf where another woman sued over unequal pay.
Husser said the injustice stings, but keeping the job she loved wasn’t worth the harassment.
“I felt like a leper. They treated me like I was persona non grata. I was treated like crap,” she said.
Shea didn’t respond to requests for comment.
But he’s not the only high-ranking city school staffer who kept a job after the city settled sexual harassment cases involving them. l John Bowne High School Principal Howard Kwait retained his $156,671 job even after the city settled three suits with female subordinates over sexual harassment claims worth a total of $405,000. l High School for Community Leadership principal Carlo Borrero kept his job even after the city paid $60,000 to a female subordinate over sexual harassment claims. l Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics principal David Jimenez kept his job after the city settled two sexual harassment suits involving him for $200,000. l Former Bronxdale High School Principal John Chase was demoted to assistant principal but kept a city paycheck even though the city settled a suit with a female subordinate for $175,000. l Brooklyn Public School 370 Principal Susan Goldberg kept her job after the city settled a sexual harassment suit with a male subordinate for $48,334. l Former Assistant Principal Dayne McLean continued to work after the city settled a sexual harassment suit with a female subordinate for $110,000. None of the educators who were subjects of the above settlements responded to requests for comment.
After The News contacted the city Education Department, spokeswoman Toya Holness said Kwait would be removed from his job, although he’ll keep his salary.
“The chancellor decided to reassign him to a central office where he will be closely supervised and will no longer be permitted to manage other employees,” Holness said.