WHITE PLAINS, NY — Judge Helen Blackwood approved a Temporary Order of Protection sought by the Westchester County District Attorney on Wednesday, for Melissa Mondragon, and her family, during a hearing for Tommy Rivera, a 16-year-old boy charged with shooting and killing another 16-year-old boy, Julian Oliveros. No explanation was given for the TOP.
Rivera is being prosecuted by the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office in the Youth Part of the Westchester County Criminal Court in White Plains, NY.
Melisa Mondragon is a Senior at New Rochelle High School. She has not attended classes at the high school since Tommy Rivera shot and killed Julian Oliveros. Officially, according to sources, she was given an “excused absence for death” on January 26, January 27, January 28, January 29. She was then approved as a “homebound” student and is currently receiving home instruction.
Home instruction is arranged through Pupil Personnel Services. The protocol is for a guidance counselor to complete a one-page form which is then approved by a building principal and sent to Pupil Personnel Services, which then assigns the student to one of several private tutoring companies under contract with the District, who coordinate with parents or guardians to set up a schedule for the youngster to receive home instruction.
That process may not have been followed with Melisa Mondragon. Efforts to locate the one-page referral form for Home Instruction have been unsuccessful, suggesting the Home Instruction was arranged over the telephone.
Candidates for home schooling are usually youngsters with a medical leave of absence or a long-term suspension. Mondragon’s long-term absence is coded as “bereavement”, sources say.
There were about 90 days left in the school year when Mondragon was approved for Home Instruction. New York State requires two hours of instruction per day for youngsters receiving home instruction. The school district can elect to provide more, which may be likely in this case, as Mondragon is a senior and will require specifics classes and credits to meet requirements to earn a diploma.
The outside contractors cost $85 an hour. Four hours a day of home instruction services for 90 days at $85 an hour is a cost of $30,600.
The District paying for a youngster to receive their education outside of New Rochelle High School in such circumstances is not unprecedented. In 2018, the District paid for the boyfriend of Valaree Schwab to attend a high school in another district because he was traumatized after witnessing her being stabbed, which resulted in her death.