By Peter Sorkin
Schools Investigator Edward Stancik said he found no evidence of misconduct by PS 89 principal Cleonice LoSecco, 74, and did not recommend any disciplinary action against her. Stancik did say, however that she was responsible for security lapses in the school which may have allowed the intruder to enter the PS 89 through an unlocked door.
LoSecco was removed as the principal of the school at 85-28 Britton Ave. and assigned to School District 24 by acting Superintendent Joseph Quinn while the investigation was pending.
LoSecco was cleared but has decided not to return to the school, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
In the first reported incident that sparked LoSecco's removal, a 6-year-old boy and girl were bringing the class attendance sheet to the front office at about 8:30 a.m. Nov. 20 when a man approached the girl and sexually molested her in stairwell No. 3, said Police Officer Sheryl Cox, a police spokeswoman. The boy was unharmed. Both students informed their teacher, Cox said.
About 10 minutes later, two 7-year-old girls were walking together in the same stairwell when they were approached by the same man, who sexually abused the two, Cox said. At 8:50 a.m. the man approached another two girls in stairwell No. 1 and molested one of them, a 6-year-old, Cox said.
Police said the man, who has yet to be identified, is the same man who walked into the school Nov. 15 and encountered a young girl. The girl was unharmed, but told her mother, her teacher and the principal about the intruder, Cox said. The incident remained unreported, however, because some school administrators thought it was a prank, she said.
Police officials, who have been circulating a sketch of the suspect since the attack, said they think he is a local resident, but they were investigating all leads.
In the aftermath of the assaults, the NYPD has been mounting an all-out effort to calm parents' and children's fears. Many parents initially called for LoSecco to be fired even though she had an unblemished record in her nearly three decades at the helm of PS 89.
Deputy Chief Raymond Diaz, commanding officer of the NYPD's school safety division, told parents at a School Board 24 meeting last month at the district offices in Glendale that with the exception of these two incidents, the neighborhood has become increasingly safer.
At the same meeting, officials voted to stop the practice of sending children as messengers and passed a resolution requiring all Board of Education officials to wear photo identification cards. Some members also discussed putting cameras and sensor pads in schools, but Quinn said there might not be enough funding for that.
Many said the school, which has one safety officer and 2,000 students, was poorly prepared for such a crime, but Gregory Thomas, executive director of the Board of Ed's student safety and prevention services, said plans were discussed to put cameras in the hallways and to install an alarm system.
