#METOO SHOCK FROM BLASIO
Cites 'culture' of fake sex claims at Ed.
The #MeToo movement apparently stops at the steps of City Hall.
Mayor de Blasio charged Wednesday that many sexualharassment complaints filed at the Department of Education were phony — and “unfortunately part of the culture” at the sprawling city agency.
“On many fronts, we get a certain number of complaints that are not real,” Hizzoner said. “I can’t give you the breakout, I’m not trying to give you the breakout.”
De Blasio’s startling comments came in response to a question about the low number — 1.5 percent — of substantiated sexualharassment claims at the DOE, which topped the list of city agencies in number of complaints.
“Any sincere reporting, whether it’s about sexual harassment or, you know, cheating on tests or anything, we take very, very seriously . . . and we have to investigate everything,” the mayor responded at an unrelated City Hall press conference.
“But it is a known fact that unfortunately there’s been a bit of a hyper-complaint dynamic sometimes for the wrong reasons. So I think that has inflated their numbers.”
Just seven complaints from DOE workers were substantiated out of the 471 filed between July 2013 through 2017.
The mayor also said there was a “distinct reality” within the DOE of people making false accusations.
“I can’t give you the sociological reasons . . . it far transcends any one type of infraction or complaint. It is a generalized culture we have to address where people use the complaint process for reasons other than a legitimate complaint,” he said.
He then tried walking back his skeptical comments, saying he wasn’t specifically referring to trumped-up complaints of sexual harassment at the DOE, but a “whole host of potential infractions” that “I’m sure are absolutely sincere.” He didn’t stop there, however. “But I’m also trying to be honest about something that’s different at DOE than at a lot of other places. And it’s a pretty well-known thing in the education world. Some people inappropriately make complaints for other reasons, not just — I’m not even sure it’s ever about sexual harassment. But it is unfortunately part of the culture.”
Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza, who was standing next to the mayor, said he couldn’t comment about the low number of substantiated complaints because he just took office.
“With all due respect, that’s a B-R question which means Before Richard. I wasn’t here,” he said.
The United Federation of Teachers blasted the mayor’s comments.
“Our teachers have a tough enough job that they don’t have time to make frivolous claims,” said UFT President Michael Mulgrew.
Last year, de Blasio claimed panhandlers begged for “fun.”
“With folks who are panhandling for a living or because somehow they think it’s fun, we’re still going to try and engage them — let them know it’s not a positive activity,” de Blasio said at the time.
He later added, “There are also people who are doing it purely out of choice — this is a fact — who somehow think it’s fun or they think it’s a way to make easy money, and I resent that.”
Records showed municipal workers have filed 1,312 complaints of sexual harassment against their colleagues from July 2013 through 2017 — and that 221 had been substantiated.