Bayside School Safety Concerns Warrant Another Meeting, Pols Say

BAYSIDE, QUEENS — After a boisterous town hall last week ended with Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza leaving the stage amid an onslaught of questions about safety at a Bayside middle school, elected officials in northeast Queens want Carranza to come back and address those concerns.

In a Jan. 20 letter to the NYC Department of Education head, seven elected officials asked Carranza to host a public meeting on school safety where he would address recently reported incidents of sexual harassment and violence at Marie Curie Middle School, or M.S. 158.

In one instance, a student said a classmate sexually harassed her at school for months but that administrators failed to intervene, the New York Post reported in December.

Then, a 14-year-old Marie Curie student was arrested earlier this month on charges that she beat up a fellow student in the school's cafeteria. A video of the fight was leaked to the Post.

But when the victims' parents spoke up at the Jan. 16 town hall in Oakland Gardens, where Carranza was only answering pre-selected questions, he stood up and left.

"Frankly, it is inconceivable that these important questions about safety were not addressed at all," the officials' letter said.

U.S. Rep. Grace Meng; State Sen. John Liu; Assembly Members Ed Braunstein and Nily Rozic and City Council Members Barry Grodenchik, Peter Koo and Paul Vallone all signed on to the letter.

"Our students, parents, and teachers deserve to know how the Department of Education is handling this problem, and furthermore, the Department of Education should listen to and respond to feedback from the community affected by these serious issues," the letter said.

In response to the letter, Department of Education spokesperson Miranda Barbot said another meeting in District 26 wasn't out of the question.

"Parents are our most important partners, and in addition to the Chancellor’s town hall last week, the Superintendent is in regular contact with schools, students, and families," Barbot said in an emailed statement. "We’re exploring options for additional meetings, and the incidents at Marie Curie are under investigation.”

A day before the town hall, northeast Queens officials had asked Carranza to "make immediate changes to your investigative processes for harassment and sexual assault cases" in light of the recent incidents at Marie Curie.

Education department officials are revising the school's protocol, retraining staff members and hiring safety agents and counselors, according to a spokesperson.

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