LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dinowitz a hypocrite over schools

Posted

To the editor:

(re: “Assistant principal won’t surrender court cases,” June 8)

I am going to make several comments relating to the lawsuit for defamation brought against Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz by Manuele Verdi, assistant principal of P.S. 24.

P.S. 24 was, and is, a severely overcrowded school, due in large part to its registration of out-of-zone students. This overcrowding had become so bad that the education board was forced to lease space for an annex at The Whitehall, located at 3333 Henry Hudson Parkway, in an attempt to alleviate this serious situation.

Unfortunately somebody (and we still don’t know who) forgot to renew the lease, causing a terrible lack-of-space problem. Mr. Verdi, in his lawsuit, claims that Assemblyman Dinowitz repeatedly, over a long period of time, falsely blamed him for failing to renew the lease even though he, Mr. Verdi., did not have the legal authority to do so, which the Assemblyman very well knew.

Thus, the defamation suit.

The courts will decide that suit and Mr. Verdi’s other lawsuit against the education board. 

In this letter, I am going to focus on the overcrowding issue and Assemblyman Dinowitz’s hypocritical attempt to restrict the registration of out-of-zone students. He did so by using his political clout to have his chief of staff, Randi Martos — who is not an education board employee, and has no authority to do so — illegally verify the home addresses of the mostly minority incoming students.

Let me explain why I use the word “hypocrite” to describe the Assemblyman. Mr. Dinowitz now lives in Riverdale, but back in the 1990s when his two children were of elementary school age, he and his family lived only a few blocks away from their neighborhood school, P.S. 86, which is located at 2756 Reservoir Ave., right next to Walton High School and across the street from the Kingsbridge Armory.

P.S. 86 at the time had a student body that was predominantly Puerto Rican and only had a mediocre ranking in the annual citywide reading and math test scoring. This was the school the Dinowitz children should have rightfully attended. 

Instead, the Assemblyman, who at the time might still have been district leader, used his political influence to have them admitted to P.S. 24, which at the time was predominantly white and ranked as one of the top elementary schools in the entire city of New York.

Evidently, it is perfectly OK for Assemblyman Dinowitz’s out-of-zone children to attend P.S. 24, but not for anybody else’s children. What a hypocritical low-life Assemblyman Dinowitz has turned out to be.

Just another sleazy politician corrupted by power. He deserves your scorn.

ALVIN GORDON

Alvin Gordon,

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