Disney trips meant for homeless students went to NYC school employees' kids, officials say
Disney trips meant for homeless students went to NYC school employees' kids, officials say
Officials say six employees of New York City’s public school system took their children or grandchildren on trips to Disney World, New Orleans and other locations using tickets that were meant for homeless students.
How is this any different from theft? These people should be sent to jail. If one of these homeless kids would steal $100 in goods from any store there is a good chance they'd have to sit in a jail cell for a while.
These trips were muchore valuable, toss all of them in jail for a month at least
The special commissioner’s office recommended that Wilson and the other staff members faulted in the report be fired and that they be required to reimburse the school system for their family members’ trips.
Wilson told the Post that she retired and was not fired.
Department of Education spokesperson Jenna Lyle said in a statement, “All staff identified in this report are no longer employed by New York City Public Schools.”
Criminal charges are required here.
Homeless kids deserve childhoods too, but can’t help thinking there must be higher priority items than sending them to Disney. A tragedy of this story is maybe those grants wouldn’t have been diverted and could have been stretched further had they been spent on more useful things.
There is always going to be "higher priority" to spend that money on. But they got it for this so let them just use it to make kids happy and not try and say that it's not the "useful things" to spend it on.
Most of the cost is likely written off by the companies providing tickets and travel, possibly even the hotel. So really this is probably just a Disney+airlines partner up for a charity that costs the schools a minimal amount (travel+ticket for chaperones, 1 per 10 children.)
It gives kids who basically have no childhood a way to actually feel like a kid. That’s still very important. Especially when we waste much more money on things that we convince ourselves are better, that are very often useless.
It's a great priority. A poor kid deserves to not worry about bills and just enjoy Disney.
I agree that logically there are higher priorities, a child's development isn't completely logical. I think allowing them to participate in the same activities as their peers is important. Stuff we might think is dumb as adults can have a big impact on kids, and homeless kids are already at a disadvantage as far as fitting in.
Wait wait, hold up. So Disney is providing trips to homeless kids to visit their amusement parks? Couldn't they think of another way of changing these kids lives in a more... lasting way?
But in case screw those scumbags who took the trips.
Where does it say Disney is paying for it? If it was Disney donating the trips, it's not really costing them much to do that.
If it was NYC businesses or tax payers, then yeah. They're probably not getting much of a discount and the money could either have been spent on more productive activities or even just a closer theme park.
You see what we pay teachers these days? They could be teachers kids AND homeless...
I bet the employees weren't teachers.
It says staff members in the article, so likely not teachers. The one named definitely isn't.
They weren't teachers. They worked in an office to support homeless students. It was mostly the manager of said office, though she "encouraged other staffers" to do the same.
Cool motive, still nepotism
Great, find every single adult responsible, and throw them in prison.
Then they'll be in Prisoney World!
The funnest prison on Earth!
these people should be mercilessly mocked and shamed until they fear showing their face in public.
They ruined the bigger plan! It was a trip to Disney, they never said they'd get a trip back...
I'd be okay with the people who went staying in Florida forever
Disney Adults vs DeSantis's Brownshirts
According to the report released this month, Linda Wilson, the Queens regional manager for the office that supports students in temporary housing, took her own children on trips that were paid for through grants for homeless students and encouraged employees she supervised to do the same but to keep quiet about it. “What happens here stays with us,” one staffer quoted Wilson as saying. Contacted by the New York Post, Wilson denied bringing her two daughters on trips or encouraging staff members to bring their children. Wilson called the special commissioner’s probe “a witch hunt.”
Queens. The same place that gave the world donald trump.
I haven't been, but Queens sounds like America's festering asshole, with little demons crawling out of it? Can anyone with first hand experiences there elaborate?
My mom is also from Queens. Rockaway Beach to be specific. A plane crashed into her old neighborhood in 2001 (no, not 9/11) and destroyed it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Airlines_Flight_587
Queens is really big. 108.1 mi² according to Google. There is a lot of bad and there is a lot of good about Queens.
One thing I liked is that there is a long history of shooting films there going back to the 1920s and there's still a studio there. Inside is also the Museum of the Moving Image. I never got a chance to go any of the times I went to New York:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaufman_Astoria_Studios
There's also Flushing Meadows, which is a great park. It's where the 1939 World's Fair was held.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flushing_Meadows–Corona_Park
And, of course, even though her neighborhood is gone, the beach is still there.