More Accuse Teacher
By Nick Chiles and Sean Gardiner, Staff Writers
Originally published in Newsday, May 4, 2001
Three more PS 78 students said yesterday that their second-grade teacher molested them in his Bronx classroom, further angering parents, police and city officials upset that the authorities were not notified of a similar allegation in 1998.
The allegations yesterday bring to five the number of boys who said they were molested by Milton McFarlane.
McFarlane, 38, of Poughkeepsie, was arrested Wednesday and charged with sodomizing a 9-year-old boy and molesting an 8-year-old boy at the Baychester school. He was ordered held without bail yesterday on two counts of endangering the welfare of a child and one count each of first-degree sodomy, sexual abuse and sexual conduct against a child. Additional charges may be filed, officials said.
Parents and city officials said yesterday that the latest allegations of sex attacks could have been prevented if school officials had not botched the case against McFarlane three years ago.
Deputy Chief Joseph Reznick, head of the Bronx detectives, said there also may be a sixth victim. All of the children are boys about the same age—8 or 9—Reznick said.
Reznick said McFarlane asked students to stay behind after class to help him clean up, only to show them pornographic pictures he downloaded on the school's computers and molest them.
The sexual assaults all took place in McFarlane's classroom during recesses, lunch hour and other breaks in the school day, Reznick said.
In 1998, McFarlane was accused of unzipping a student's pants and fondling the boy.
"They did their own investigation," Reznick said of the Board of Education. "They felt it was unsubstantiated. They could not prove or disprove it. His act constituted a crime and therefore we should have been notified."
School officials instead wrote a letter to McFarlane admonishing him for keeping students after class and reminding him that the classroom is strictly to be used for instructional purposes, Reznick said.
The letter made no mention of the sexual abuse allegations, Reznick said, and it's unclear whether McFarlane ever was officially served with the letter.
"It boggles the mind that no one called the police," Schools Chancellor Harold Levy said of the 1998 incident.
Levy has asked his general counsel, Chad Vignola, to investigate why the former principal, Ione Edwards, who has since retired, never contacted police or school system officials.
Last June, Levy sent an e-mail to all the system's principals telling them they needed to alert law enforcement and the central board when there was evidence of a crime, said his spokeswoman, Karen Finney.
"With the recent events, that system was followed," Finney said. "The principal [Claudina Skerritt] called the police immediately. We knew within the central board within hours what had happened."
The thought that other students were allegedly molested at the school haunted parents, who sifted through their interactions with McFarlane to determine if there were ever any signs of sexual deviancy or at least strange behavior.
The news that McFarlane had told police he was HIV-positive also was too much to bear for many parents, who refused to let their children attend school yesterday morning.
McFarlane started as a per diem substitute in February 1992 and eventually was appointed a teacher at PS 78 in September 1998.
"Yes, he was good," Pamela Beckford said yesterday, "but I hope he didn't touch my son. My son was hyperactive in other classes, but in Mr. McFarlane's class he got a certificate for good behavior."
The conduct of PS 78 administrators drew fire from Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who said he contacted Council Speaker Peter Vallone about passing a law that would mandate school employees contact the police and the district attorney whenever there is evidence a crime has been committed.
"Obviously I'm outraged at the incidents that occurred in the last week, but I'm just as outraged at the incidents that occurred in the past that were handled in an incompetent manner," Giuliani said.
"You don't have room for that kind of incompetence when you're entrusted with the care of children and the city should be outraged," he said.
