One of the e-mails prompting Terence Hale’s recent resignation from the Mineola Board of Education has struck a nerve with two mothers whose sons were involved in a choking incident at the Jackson Avenue School cafeteria earlier this year.
“From day one, the situation wasn’t handled properly. There were a lot of safety issues involved. Unfortunately you don’t think about how people were trained until something happens,” said Linda Ramos, the parent of one the boys involved in the incident.
Ramos said her son, Nicholas, was reprimanded by a Jackson Avenue School cafeteria worker after he saved a friend who was choking on a carrot in the school cafeteria during lunch.
Nicholas, who later honored by village officials for his potentially live-saving assistance, administered a “back thrust” maneuver he learned as a Cub Scout, punching him in the back to dislodge the carrot.
Ramos reported the reprimand Nicholas received after saving his friend in a long letter she said the school board requested she write recounting the Jan. 25 choking incident and its aftermath.
Ramos said her son told her the aide pounded her fist on the cafeteria table and said to Nicholas, “How dare you not get up and get help?”
The aide then punished the children by making their table last to get lunch that day, Ramos said in the letter, a copy of which was obtain by the Williston Times.
Ramos and Laurain Jones, whose son Steven was saved by the Nicholas Ramos, both said they sought to meet with school board members to discuss the incident but the board declined.
In the April 22 e-mail to fellow board members, Hale made light of concerns the mothers expressed in communications with the school board for their children’s safety after the incident, saying, “What about the hiney lick maneuver? Everyone should know that.”
“I think it had to be publicized for everyone to understand the horrible thing that Terry Hale did,” Jones said.
Jones said she felt “blindsided” by apparent leaks about the e-mails and said the board should have consulted her and Ramos about their contents. She said her son Steven and her two older children were being confronted with comments from other students about the e-mails before excerpts were printed in news accounts after Hale’s resignation.
The choking incident distressed both women when it happened on Friday, Jan 25.
After Ramos’s son, Nicholas, was subsequently reprimanded for not seeking adult assistance by a cafeteria aide, she said she had to convince him he’d done the right thing.
“He didn’t remember the good that he did. All he remembered was that he got in trouble with it,” Ramos said.
The incident had occurred during a disciplinary “lunchtime lockdown” when the lights go off and all students are supposed to remain quietly in their seats.
Copies of Hale’s e-mail and correspondence between Ramos and Jones with the school board were included in documents board Trustee Irene Parrino sent to the state education commissioner requesting Hale’s removal from the school board for misconduct in sending e-mails that she called “derogatory” and “demeanoing.”
A copy of the complaint later provided to Williston Times by Parino included e-mails to fellow board members in April characterized by sarcasm, locker room humor and off-color comments aimed towards Parrino, Mineola Teachers Association President Teresa Hafner and the Williston Times, among others.
Parrino, who had clashed with Hale and other members of the board over the school reconfiguration plan passed two years ago, filed the complaint after her loss in the school board election in May.
Hale resigned effective July 1, he said, to save the district the expense of hiring counsel to defend his actions. But the board hired outside counsel to respond to Parrino’s charges at a special meeting last Thursday night.
The board of education announced last week that district clerk Andrea Paggi would be accepting letters of interest from prospective candidates to replace Hale for a term that run from July 2, 2013 through May 20, 2014. Paggi said she had received two letters earlier this week.
The board will select Hale’s replacement from those submitting the letters of interest, the district announced. The deadline for letters of interest is June 25.
Ramos and Jones said published excerpts from Hale’s e-mail have revived memories of the incident and their frustration with the Mineola school board for refusing to meet with them to discuss their concerns about school safety.
“I’m disappointed with the entire board. Questions should have been asked and answered and analyzed,” Ramos said.
Both women say if the board had agreed to meet with the parents, a continuing exchange of e-mails between the mothers and the board would not have occurred – including Hale’s reference to the Heimlich maneuver and other comments. In his e-mail about the incident, Hale also said, “It seems a fruit basket is not a thoughtful condolence gift…Perhaps a vegetable tray…Everything diced and julienned…okay no carrots…turnips ok?
As far as an adult not being there…They didn’t see it happen…however plenty of recognition was given to the boys…Perhaps a Key to the Village…”
The recognition he apparently refers to was a commendation the boys received from the Mineola Village Board.
“He makes fun of Nicholas for his actions and says I should get a fruit basket if my kid dies,” Jones said.
In her letter to the board Ramos said she later learned from a school official that adults present in the lunchroom were not trained for the Heimlich maneuver or cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Ramos said she and Jones eventually met with Mineola Superintendent of Schools Michael Nagler to discuss the incident on Feb. 7.
In her letter to the board, including an account of that meeting, Ramos writes that Nagler said he didn’t agree with the way the situation with her son had been handled. But in an e-mail dated April 15, board President Will Hornberger told the women the board had reached the “unanimous opinion that there is no actionable item requiring input from the Board of Education.”
“To say I’m disappointed in your response would be an understatement. I can only surmise that it is also the unanimous opinion of the BOE that the safety, self-esteem and well being of the children is not considered an actionable concern,” Ramos wrote in response to Hornberger.
Ramos said she and Jones both suppressed information about the reprimand to Ramos’s son when the choking incident was reported in the media.
She said the incident might not have been a factor in Hale’s decision to resign if the board had agreed to a meeting. But she doesn’t defend Hale’s comments.
“I’m not condoning what he did in any sense. Why would he say something like that?” she said.
She said she is more upset that the incident has been brought back into the public eye by Parrino filing a complaint to the state and Hale’s subsequent resignation from the board.
Ramos, a PTA activist, was among residents who supported the re-election of Hale and Hornberger based on their support of plans to consolidate the school district.
“I’m disgusted with the fact that Irene filed this because she lost,” Ramos said.
But Jones said Parrino is being unfairly criticized.
“They’re crucifying poor Irene Parrino. She said it perfectly: ‘He’s in trouble for what he said, not for what I did’,” Jones said. “Out of the whole board, she’s the only one who had a problem with it.”
She did acknowledge a report that board Trustee Christine Napolitano had told Hale to stop sending the e-mails.
Attempts to reach Hornberger, Napolitano and board Trustee Artie Barnett for comment were unavailing. Nagler declined to comment on Ramos’s account of his meeting with the two mothers
Hafner declined to comment on Hale’s criticism of her and district teachers in an April 29 e-mail.
Parrino said she has received what she described as “harassing” e-mails from Hale.
Efforts to reach Hale for comments were also unavailing.
