WELCOME BACK, DONNA: New Rochelle Board of Education Rewards Sexting Security Staffer with More Pay, Better Hours

Whoever said “crime doesn’t pay” never worked in the New Rochelle school system.

Donna “Hardcore” Henry, the woman at the center of a “sexting scandal” last year for her role in obtaining and transmitting a nude image of a female student at Albert Leonard Middle School, has received another board-approved pay increase and is being allowed to transfer off the night shift at New Rochelle High School where she was sent after her suspension over the sexting incident last May.

Last night, the board of education passed without comment Resolution No. 11-92-2 which reads as follows:

RESOLUTION No. 11-92-2
REASSIGNMENT – SALARY ADJUSTMENT – BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS

RESOLVED, that the salary adjustment of the following staff due to reassignment from third shift to second shift be authorized and approved effective September 1, 2010:

Donna Henry Cleaner Grade 1 – Step 15
$44,437 per annum
2,688 night duty

Talk of the Sound first broke the story last May: New Rochelle Security Guard Implicated in “Sexting” at Albert Leonard, Took Teen’s Phone, Distributed Images:

Talk of the Sound has learned that parents of a middle school student in New Rochelle, NY have pulled their child out of the school district and relocated in the wake of a “sexting” incident at Albert Leonard Middle School. “Sexting involved students taking nude or semi-nude photos of themselves and sharing them with their friends.

The incident took place in December 2008. Over the next several months, the school district sought to walk a line between addressing the issue of sexting without disclosing the existence of the Henry case with the goal of deceiving the public as the nature of the incident. Christine Coleman, Director of IT for the District, crossed the line when, during a presentation to the Board of Education, she stated that there had not been any cases of sexting in the New Rochelle school district, a claim that was knowingly false.

Sources tell Talk of the Sound that Henry obtained the nude image after confiscating the telephone of the student who took the picture but instead of turning the phone into the school principal, kept the phone for several days during which time she transmitted the photo to at least two other school district employees, including a janitor at Isaac E. Young Middle School and an administrative employee at City Hall. The man and the woman were, respectively, her son and daughter-in-law, sources say. The janitor transmitted the image to other district employees and within a matter of days the nude image had been widely distributed among school district employees as well as municipal employees.

Talk of the Sound has confirmed the role of Ron Williams of the NAACP. Henry, a long-time community activist in the African-American community, appealed to Williams for help keeping her job, her benefits and her pension. It was Williams who pressured the district not to fire Henry.

When the district reported the matter to the police, there was no mention of Donna Henry’s role or that she transmitted the image to her own phone and from there onto others. The police, with no computer forensic capability, questioned the student who took the photo, deleted the image and returned the phone to the student.

New Rochelle Police Destroy Records in Child Pornography Case at Albert Leonard Middle School

According to an incident report filed by Detective Ray Andolina, the youth officer for the New Rochelle Police Department, the incident first came to light on December 10, 2008 when a 14 year old student at Albert Leonard Middle School informed school principal William Evans of a nude photo being circulated via cell phone for over a week among students at Albert Leonard Middle School and New Rochelle High School. Sources tell Talk of the Sound this is the same full frontal nude photo of a 7th grade student which was obtained and distributed by a security guard at Albert Leonard and distributed to other district staff throughout the district including security guards and other staff at Isaac E. Young Middle School…The incident report indicates that New Rochelle police failed to seek outside assistance to analyze the image and the cell phone despite the department’s lack of qualified personnel to perform such analysis. A knowledgeable source, familiar with the capabilities of the New Rochelle Police Department, tells Talk of the Sound that the department has no officers qualified to perform a forensic examination of electronic image, cell phones or computers. The report does not indicate any effort was made to obtain or review billing records or log files from the phone company, which would permit investigators to track the transmission of the image via text message or email.

After Talk of the Sound broke the story, the district sought to “solve” the Donny Henry problem by transferring her to the high school and giving her a job as a cleaner working on the night shift which meant her “punishment” consisted of a paid vacation and then a significant increase in pay.

RESOLUTION No. 09-259-K
PROBATIONARY APPOINTMENT – POSITION RECLASSIFIED

RESOLVED, the probationary appointment of Donna Henry to Cleaner (position reclassified from General School Aide), Grade 1, Step 14, $43,467, plus night duty, $2,637 be and hereby is approved effective May 19, 2009 with such an appointment to be subject to the required probationary period.

The resolution approving her reclassification was tabled at the June 2009 board meeting but Henry remained at the high school over the past year and is now receiving an additional pay increase and moving from the night shift to a day shift.

DISCLAIMER: By previous written policy directive, Schools Superintendent Richard Organisciak has ordered administrators and building principals in the City School District of New Rochelle not to respond to requests for information from Robert Cox and/or Talk of the Sound. Further that Robert Cox is banned from school property except for purposes of attending a public meeting or event or for matters related to a child enrolled in a particular school and that the school district refuses to comply with FOIL requests made by Robert Cox — both of which are violations of New York State law. Talk of the Sound makes a reasonable effort to get official, on-the-record comment from school officials but this is made all but impossible due to district policy.