HS kids’ $tiff lesson

Nerds: Bryant HS lied on paying us

This high school bytes! Administrators at William Cullen Bryant HS in Queens put a crew of techsavvy kids to work repairing and servicing computers — but stiffed them out of their promised pay, the students told The Post.

“We worked like dogs. They basically cheated us,” said a student on the school’s “Mouse Squad.”

The city Department of Education is investigating complaints by six students who say they toiled at the Astoria school from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. for 10 weeks in the summer of 2014.

“It was really hot,” one said. “They made us lift heavy computers and printers. My feet were hurting. Sometimes we didn’t even eat lunch.”

The school promised to pay them minimum wage for a total of $2,000 each, students said. They kept asking for their dough, but administrators cited bureaucratic snafus while assuring the kids they would be compensated.

“At the end, they told us they didn’t have any money, so we wouldn’t get paid,” said a June graduate who is now in college.

“I got angry because I needed the money to help support my family,” said another Mouse Squad member, now a premed student in Hunter College. His dad was sick and out of work, he said.

This year, two students sent emails describing their plight to Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña. “This is strictly child labor,” one wrote.

Fariña’s office referred the emails back to Bryant principal Namita Dwarka, who called the students into her office with their parents and threatened to discipline them, they said.

Another former student said Dwarka hired him after he graduated. She gave him a Bryant ID card marked “Ad ministrat,” keys to offices, and a walkietalkie, he said.

He worked fulltime for four months without pay.

“She [Dwarka] told me, ‘We’re going to do a contract,’ but she never did it,” said the student, who finally quit.

In a Mouse Squad class, students responded to work orders — requests to troubleshoot the school’s computer needs. Each worked up to 25 hours a week, sometimes lifting and moving shipments of computers and other equipment, they said.

“I’ve had kids bring me a laptop, fix things, hook up computers to the Internet or connect to the DOE network. Any computer question you have, they answered it,” said math teacher Mary Boxoyan. “They deserve to be paid for all the work they did.”

Coordinating the jobs was Harpreet Kaur, a computer specialist paid $44,739 a year. The DOE suspended her “for an unrelated matter,” officials said.

Also under investigation is Henry Huezo, the teacher assigned to the class, who was rarely there, the students said.

“He showed up one or two times a week for 10 minutes, then disappeared,” one recalled. “He usually said he had a meeting with the principal, and just left. We were basically teaching the class ourselves.”

Students said they received some paychecks late in the 2013 and 2014 school years, covering only a few of the months they worked.

Dwarka could not be reached by The Post for comment.