Coverup on her watch: HS grad
Says B’klyn principal downplayed gun scare
A Brooklyn high-school graduate charges the principal of his alma mater engaged in a “coverup” of a shooting outside the building in late 2018, The Post has learned.
Dejaun Wright, 19, who graduated from Cobble Hill HS in June 2019 after serving as student-body president, filed a complaint saying Principal Anna Maria Mule failed to inform parents of the gunplay at dismissal on Nov. 29, 2018 — and then barred him from offering emotional support to traumatized classmates.
Some students had left school for the day at 2:40 p.m. and were panic-stricken when gunfire erupted, with “one or two shots” ringing out, according to a teacher.
“They never ran so fast in their life,” Wright said. “They never thought it would happen to them. Some kids were crying.”
Wright recalled a chaotic scene as students outside scattered, while about 200 kids still in the building were rushed to the cafeteria and locked down for about an hour. School-safety agents shouted, “Everybody inside! Nobody leave!” Wright said.
But Mule “actively took steps to prevent parents from knowing” about the incident, Wright said in his July 3 complaint to the Special Commissioner of Investigation for city schools.
The NYPD said officers investigated the case of reckless endangerment when a gunman displayed and fired a weapon but could not say if an arrest was made.
Cops watched the school for a week afterward, Wright said.
Mule told teachers not to mention the gunfire during parent conferences that same night, staffers told The Post. And she never sent a letter notifying parents about the incident, while another school in the neighborhood did inform parents.
Wright said he and other student leaders printed a letter for their shaken classmates, saying: “We are offering full support to any student who may have felt scared, shocked or confused by last week’s incident.”
But after they began handing out the letter in classrooms, Wright was called to the office by an assistant principal who told him to stop or he would be booted as student-body president, he said.
The school itself did not offer any counseling, Wright said.
“The school administration ultimately did nothing to resolve the incident, choosing instead to sweep it under the rug,” he told the SCI.
He told The Post, “No student should have to fear going to school or experience a coverup like that.”
Wright, now in college, said he did not go to authorities earlier because he feared retaliation by Mule. He also said Mule’s handling of the episode shows flaws in Mayor de Blasio’s recently announced plan to let principals, instead of the NYPD, run school safety.
“Transferring control to principals will lead to more coverups,” he said.
Mule is the subject of another SCI complaint by teachers who say she engaged in grade-fixing to boost the school’s graduation rate.
She called Wright’s allegations “absolutely not true” in an e-mail to The Post, but said she could not talk without DOE approval. DOE spokesman Nathaniel Styer said Mule immediately notified police and superiors after the incident.
Four days later, Styer said, superintendent Janice Ross “addressed community concerns” at a District 15 school-board meeting.