After allegedly posting offensive content on Facebook, Bronx principal faces investigation
The education department is investigating the principal of DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx for allegedly posting offensive content on his private Facebook page that referred to immigrants as “illegals,” suggested a transgender woman isn’t a woman, and spread false information about COVID.
The posts that allegedly appeared on Principal Pierre Orbe’s private page were reported to the department’s Office of the General Counsel last week and “will be thoroughly investigated,” education department spokesperson Katie O’Hanlon said.
Separately, a teacher at the school reported the posts on June 8 to the office of the Special Commissioner of Investigation for city schools, known as SCI, according to an email that teacher shared with Chalkbeat. Regina Gluzmanov, a spokesperson for SCI, confirmed that the office has received a complaint about Orbe. SCI has also assigned a case number to the complaint and has received screenshots of the posts, according to an email obtained by Chalkbeat. However, Gluzmanov said she could not say if the office had opened an investigation.
Screenshots and screen recordings of the posts, dating from late March through the first week of June, were shared with Chalkbeat by two teachers at the school. They are posts of videos or reposts from other Facebook users’ pages and not Orbe’s own words. Still, the posts were so offensive in nature that shocked faculty members began sharing them with each other, and students caught wind of the controversy in recent weeks, according to three teachers and two students who spoke with Chalkbeat on condition of anonymity because they fear retaliation.
