New Rochelle Public School Misappropriates Haitian Relief Funds for Employee Plane Tix, Donates to Tennessee Religious Group

Written By: Robert Cox

donationjar.jpgSchool officials in New Rochelle, NY have admitted that district employees solicited charitable donations from children at Albert Leonard Middle School during the school day, that some of the proceeds from the fund-raising activity were used to reimburse a teacher at the school for plane tickets she had purchased for a co-worker, and that one-third of the funds donated to legitimate charities went to a religious organization affiliated with the Archdiocese of Nashville in Tennessee. The direct solicitation of public school students during the school day when they are compelled to be in school is illegal in New York State.

In the days following the earthquake in Haiti, security guards at the Albert Leonard Middle School placed a plastic container on a table in the cafeteria, near the area where students purchase food. On 15 separate occasions — three lunch periods per day over the course of five days — the guards used the P.A. system in the cafeteria to make direct solicitation of funds “for Haiti”. Children, most between ages 10 and 13, were admonished by the guards not to buy food with their money but to put money into the container “for Haiti”. The guards repeatedly, actively directed the attention of the children to the container which was placed in plain sight so that the identities of students making donations was revealed.

School officials have denied any wrongdoing.

“The fund raising drive at ALMS was sponsored by the Student Council”, wrote School Board President Sara Richmond in response to an email, “not by any individual personnel at the school.” Richmond dismissed concerns about security staff who “may have” used the P.A. system in the cafeteria to make direct solicitation of funds because the solicitations were made “at the behest of a sanctioned student organization.”

It is a violation of New York State law for any person or organization to make any direct solicitation of charitable donations from children in the public schools on school property for any reason during regular school hours [see Title 8, Chapter I, Part 19.6 of the Codes, Rules and Regulations of the State of New York]

Section 19.6. Solicitation of charitable donations.

Direct solicitation of charitable donations from children in the public schools on school property during regular school hours shall not be permitted. The commissioner shall develop and disseminate guidelines on the interpretation of this rule.

The guidelines and decisions on Rule 19.6 disseminated by the State Education Commissioner are simple and plainly written.

The direct solicitation of charitable donations from public school students on school property during school hours, (i.e., asking school children directly to contribute money or goods for the benefit of charity during the hours in which they are compelled to be on school premises) is prohibited. Collection of charitable contributions of food, clothing, other goods or funds from students in the classroom or homeroom is prohibited. The term “during school hours” includes homerooms, lunch periods or any other time up until students are released from compulsory attendance. There is no exception under Rule 19.6 for charitable fund raising by students or for school-related organizations, such as parent-teacher associations. Direct solicitation of students during school hours is prohibited regardless of the nature of the person or organization soliciting donations. Solicitation of food, clothing, other goods or funds is permitted so long as it is done in a non-coercive and passive fashion, such as through a bin or receptacle placed in a hallway or other common area, so that the identities of students making and not making donations are not revealed.

School officials have confirmed to Talk of the Sound that of the funds raised, $3,000 was “apportioned” to three charitable organizations with the rest going to reimburse a teacher who purchased a plane ticket on her credit card for the benefit of another district employee who works at the school. The employee, a kitchen worker at Albert Leonard Middle School, traveled to Haiti to be with her family after the January 12, 2010 earthquake.

Richmond rejected concerns over “how the money raised was spent” on the paradoxical grounds that no fraud could have occurred because the Student Council did not decide how to apportion the funds until after the money way raised while confirming that that some of the funds raised “for Haiti” were used for personal expenses. She characterized the misappropriation of funds donated for Haitian earthquake relief as a “reimbursement to a teacher who had out of her pocket bought a plane ticket for a member of the staff to go to Haiti to find relatives.”

Despite district claims to the contrary, soliciting funds “for Haiti” in the days after the earthquake and the using the funds for some purpose other than Haitian earthquake relief efforts likely constitutes fraud under New York State law. The use of donations for personal use is a violation of New York State’s not-for-profit and charitable solicitation laws. There is no “finding relatives” exception under New York State law that permits converting charitable donations to personal use.

The school district says the balance of the donated funds were split among three groups with $1000 going to Americares, $1000 to Doctors without Borders, $1000 going to Visitation Hospital. Officials did not say whether money donated to Americares or Doctors without Borders was designated for the Haiti Earthquake or the general fund.

The Visitation Hospital is an odd choice for donations from a public middle school in New York.

The Visitation Hospital Foundation (VHF) is a religious charity. Fund-raising for religious groups in a public school is not permitted. VHF is a fund-raising vehicle for Parish Twinning Program, a a Catholic-affiliated 501(c)(3) non-profit organization which establishes “sister parish” relationships between Catholic parishes in the United States and Canada with church communities in Haiti and elsewhere in Latin America. The Parish Twinning Program of the Americas (PTPA) originated in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville, Tennessee. In 1996, PTPA began work on a clinic in Haiti in the southern village of Petite Riviere de Nippes. The majority of land for “Visitation Hospital” was donated by Bishop Alix Verrier of the Diocese of Les Cayes.

The foundation web site states there is no hospital. The foundation is currently raising money to build a hospital but that project is still in the drawing board phase. There is a small clinic on the planned hospital site but it is located 40 miles west of Port-au-Prince and, according to the site, served just 3-4 people a day in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake.

The Parish Twinning Program and Visitation Hospital Foundation have set up an Earthquake Emergency Fund but school officials did not say if funds were going to the building foundation or the emergency fund.

Asked at a recent school board meeting to explain what appear to be clear violations of state education law, not-profit law and charitable solicitation law by district employees, Richmond demurred, later responding in an email the school board would review the matter “in the coming months” to insure that District policy is “in keeping with NYSED guidance” regarding charitable fund raising.

This appears to be an attempt by the district to position itself to deny any complaint over the illegal fundraising on the grounds it the complaint would not be timely. Section 275.16 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education requires that “an appeal be initiated within 30 days of the action or decision complained of”.