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Watchdog calls on NYC schools to ban teachers from talking to students on social media, personal cellphones
By
Jessica Gould
Published Mar 23, 2023
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By
Jessica Gould
Published Mar 23, 2023
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A watchdog agency for New York City’s public schools has persistently recommended that education officials ban employees from contacting students on social media or cellphones. The push comes after several recent investigations by the agency uncovered inappropriate communications between education department employees and students, according to documents obtained by Gothamist.
According to the watchdog, called the Special Commissioner of Investigation, the education department has so far not adopted the recommendation. City education officials said the change in policy is unnecessary because the department already has in place guidance that restricts social media use as well as disciplinary consequences for teachers who misuse technology.
Since February 2022, the SCI’s online database shows the agency has on 19 occasions issued the same advice: that the education department amend its policy so all its “personnel or employees of its vendors are prohibited from contacting students using personal cellphone numbers, personal social media accounts and other associated applications.”
The SCI regularly issues recommendations to the education department following investigations into misconduct, the agency said.
"Social media and personal cellphone use are issues we have been grappling with for two decades,” said Bree Dusseault, managing director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, a think tank.
Dusseault said the issues have become even more complex as technology advances — and after the COVID-19 pandemic pushed classrooms online.
"Schools are working to stay relevant and keep learning relevant. During the pandemic, teachers were using a lot of different mediums to connect with kids,” said Dusseault.
When schools closed in 2020, many teachers in the city relied on cellphones and social media to connect with students. Some texted their students daily to remind them to show up to online class, and others made YouTube videos to liven up their lessons.
Dusseault said an outright ban may not make as much sense as tightening rules and ensuring employees are informed of those rules. “It really is about providing guidance, guidelines and perhaps professional development."
Records allege inappropriate communication with students
Online platforms have in some cases proven to be a pathway for misconduct by educators.
Documents obtained by Gothamist through a freedom of information request reveal several instances in recent years where teachers have used personal social media accounts or cellphones to have inappropriate conversations with students.
The records detail five cases the SCI reviewed at city schools since 2019. They include a teacher who appeared nude while video chatting with a student on FaceTime and an after-school counselor who texted “I love you” to a 13-year-old.
“SCI has consistently recommended, and will continue to recommend, that the DOE amend and update its social media guidelines to better provide for the safety and wellbeing of New York City students and their families,” the agency’s head Anastasia Coleman said in a statement.
Education department officials said rules are already in place to protect students from misconduct generally, and on social media specifically.
“Every allegation of employee misconduct is taken seriously and the top priority of New York City Public Schools is ensuring that all students are safe and free to learn in a comfortable and supportive environment,” said education department spokesperson Jenna Lyle. “We set high standards of conduct for our employees and any and all inappropriate behavior by employees is strictly prohibited.”
Lyle noted that all employees must follow the school system’s social media guidelines, which bar staff from contacting students through personal social media pages. The guidelines acknowledge that the technology “can serve as a powerful tool” to advance lessons.
They require both staff and students to use “social media space and communication like a classroom and/or a professional workplace,” and “if a particular type of behavior is inappropriate in the classroom or a professional workplace, then that behavior is also inappropriate on the professional social media sites.”
The school system also has regulations explicitly banning sexual harassment, whether in person, by phone or online.
But SCI records show several teachers flouted those rules for months or even years.
In one letter sent to Chancellor David Banks in February 2022, the SCI alleged that I.S. 228 teacher Andrei Hargobind, then 51, harassed a student for years.
The letter alleges Hargobind inappropriately touched the student when she was 15 years old, and later took her to the beach and bought her a “revealing” bathing suit. According to the SCI’s official report, Hargobind also allegedly sent the student text messages, and exposed himself “entirely nude” on a Facetime call years later, when the student was 18 years old.
Hargobind could not be reached for comment and the SCI’s letter said he declined to be interviewed by its investigators. DOE officials said he has been reassigned away from students, and will be leaving the education department at the end of June as part of a settlement that bans him from any future employment with the agency.
In another letter sent to Banks in August 2022, the SCI alleged Daniel Smith, then a physical education teacher at P.S. 42 in the Bronx, “engaged in inappropriate communications [with a student] through TikTok.”
According to the SCI’s letter, Smith, then 31, allegedly used TikTok to chat with the female student — who was 11 years old at the time — about personal topics “for almost five hours” after school. He has since resigned from his job and is banned from future employment with the education department, officials said. Smith declined to comment on the report.
Other examples disclosed through SCI records include:
- A January 2021 letter from the SCI to former Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza alleged that in 2019, after-school counselor Dylan Mirabella, then 31, texted “I love you” to a female student at J.H.S 210 in Queens, who was 13 at the time;
- A February 2021 letter from the SCI to Carranza that alleged Long Island City High School teacher Lendell Sims, then 53, had inappropriate conversations with multiple female students on Google Voice, bought jackets and a ring for the students, and at one point wrote “I deserve head” on a Post-it note he gave to a student;
- A December 2021 letter from the SCI to former Schools Chancellor Meisha Porter that alleged Curtis Haywood, a music teacher at the Bronx’s Theatre Arts Production Company School, who was 55 at the time, of inappropriate behavior. The SCI in the letter alleged Haywood asked a student during a private conversation on Zoom “how she saw their relationship progressing,” and suggested meeting up outside of school.
Education officials said Mirabella, Sims and Haywood have all either resigned or been fired from their jobs in the school system. All three declined to comment or could not be reached.
“All employee discipline is done individually and according to the policies and procedures outlined in our regulations,” said Lyle, the education department spokesperson.
Dusseault said ethical lapses should not be blamed on the technology itself, but added that education officials in and beyond New York City should consider regularly reviewing rules as technology and the contexts in which it is used evolve.
"Refreshing these policies regularly makes sense,” she said.
Tagged
new york city
education
Jessica Gould
Jessica is the education reporter for WNYC and Gothamist. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Jessica reported on the shutdown and reopening of the nation’s largest school system, highlighting the unprecedented impacts on learning, health and mental health for students, staff and families. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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