The Department of Education has launched a probe into whether administrators at a Brooklyn high school investigated and punished students who hacked and spread an intimate Facebook exchange between a teacher and her ex-boyfriend.
The vicious prank at the Urban Action Academy in Canarsie was first reported by The Post last week.
Students made photocopies of a screen grab of social studies teacher Angela Costa’s private message — in which she thanked her lover for giving her “a couple of orgasms” — on June 13. That message was dated Jan. 12, 2015.
A shaken Costa accused school brass of sweeping the incident under the rug. The school failed to immediately report the incident or punish the culprits, she said.
Fearing for her safety after getting harassing emails, Costa said she is applying for a transfer out of the school.
She and others filed complaints with Special Commissioner of Investigation Richard Condon’s office. He referred the case to the DOE’s internal office of special investigations. “The matter is under investigation,” a DOE spokesman confirmed.
In a letter to Condon obtained by The Post, Costa claimed Principal Steve Dorcely and assistant principal Jordan Barnett “failed to conduct a proper investigation” and hid information about images of possible culprits captured on surveillance camera.
“They waited over two weeks to take statements and question select students and staff. School authorities didn’t file an incident report until two days later. I no longer feel safe in the school and inquired about a safety transfer,” she said.
Students had dropped dozens of copies of her revealing Facebook message throughout the school building.
Initially, administrators told her that the surveillance video was too blurry to identify any students in the images.
But in the letter to investigators, Costa said she reviewed the video with assistant principal for security Stanley Alton, and it showed at least two students handling copies of the hacked love note.
“What he, I and a school safety agent saw was deplorable. In the video, the students are identifiable, and you can see students in the hallway, some with fliers, laughing and snapping photos of [the flier],” Costa said. “After viewing the video, Mr. Alton called his superiors and let them know that the incident was not properly investigated.”
After The Post reported on the incident, Dorcely called a meeting and said he was now handling the in-house investigation. He said parents of two students identified in the video were contacted.