The former principal of the city’s best public high school tried to sweep a massive, 66-student cheating ring under the rug, part of a pattern of hushing up cheating at the elite school, investigators found.
Citing “a lack of foresight, candor and professional judgment,” the city’s Office of Special Investigations found that Stuyvesant HS principal Stanley Teitel failed to address the cheating ring when it was discovered — and then made “a conscious decision” to “obstruct the reporting process” by not informing city and state education higher-ups.
The Department of Education’s probe of its crown-jewel school was completed back in November 2012, but the agency sat on the embarrassing findings for nearly a year.
Teitel retired as Stuyvesant principal in August 2012, just months after hordes of students at the Battery Park school were caught texting or receiving answers to state tests that determine whether they graduate.
“Mr. Teitel showed an extreme lack of judgment when he orchestrated a plan designed not to address or thwart this cheating, but to create circumstances under which it could continue,” the report said.
The probe found that Teitel had covered up cheating in the past, failing to notify education officials.
Stuyvesant’s assistant principal Randy Damesek was also cited for obstructing the probe and helping mask the cheating.
Investigators recommended that Teitel not be eligible for any future DOE job. Disciplinary action against Damesek is pending.
Teitel declined to comment.