‘Affair’ probe at HS
Asst. principal axed
Authorities are investigating allegations that a female assistant principal in Queens slept with a girl student while the principal kept it quiet.
Pelagia Papoutsis, 33, was abruptly removed from William Cullen Bryant HS in Long Island City the week before classes started after one of her former students told a teacher they were romantically involved.
“In hindsight, it was super obviously twisted and wrong,” the girl said in text messages to gym teacher Peter Maliarakis, who shared them with The Post.
The accusation emerged over the summer after Maliarakis created a mutinous Facebook group called “Things you never knew about Bryant High School.”
“Pelly was having inappropriate relations with a student,” the student, who has graduated and gone to college, texted Maliarakis.
When Maliarakis asked whether she had proof, she replied, “I’m the first hand witness because it was me.”
“I have tons of proof — old emails and stuff.”
She texted Maliarakis that Principal Namita Dwarka was aware of the wrongdoing but “played along with it” and did nothing.
Maliarakis said that he also spoke by phone to the student and that she told him the relationship started during her senior year.
“She was 17 years old, and it continued after she graduated,” he said.
The age of consent in New York is 17, so such an affair would not result in criminal charges.
Reached by phone, the former student refused to discuss Papoutsis.
A rep for Richard Condon, special commissioner of investigation for city schools, confirmed the investigation.
Papoutisis declined to comment. Dwarka did not return a message.
Papoutsis was a principal’s pet, sources said. Her salary rose from $75,796 in 2013 to $97,735 in 2014 after Dwarka promoted her to assistant principal for math.
The Department of Education removed Maliarakis from his duties last June for incompetence and insubordination after he refused to bring a class to a basement fitness room in 2013. A state agency found the room unsafe after he complained.