Before the Hunter Biden IRS whistleblower scandals of 2023, before parents being called domestic terrorists and before critical race theory, transgender rights and a generation of entitlement and mental health issues, there was a teacher trying every way to warn the public of every danger in a public school in Queens, New York.
That teacher was me. My name is Cindy Grosz.
I was an award-winning educator. In 2004,
I was one of four teachers given the honor of The Pathfinder Awards, for recording an 84 percent rise in English Language Arts test scores from 2002 to 2003 and a 90 percent jump in math scores. How did I go from that to termination?
I was a whistleblower.
I recently won a victory in the New York Supreme Court that if exposed and followed honestly by common sense media and taken seriously by candidates and voters in local, state and national elections, it would change the state of public education in America.
The case is clear.
The United States Department of Labor established the Whistleblower Protection Act in 1989 and with amendments following with the purpose of protecting employees from retaliation, intimidation, threats, coercion, harassment and discrimination because they have have engaged in protected activity under any equal employment opportunity law enforced by OFCCP, such as filing a discrimination complaint, providing information to OFCCP during a compliance evaluation or opposing practices made unlawful by equal opportunity laws, especially for federal employees. Public school teachers fall under that category.
Additionally, educators are mandated reporters and are required under the law to report suspicious behavior of possible neglect and/or abuse in student homes. The Social Services Laws provides immunity from liability for mandated reporters and confidentiality to protect them from revengeful subjects under investigation.
In my case, I was promised in writing in an email by both a member of the Department of Education and the New York City’s Mayor’s office whistleblower protection.
Last week, the judge in a New York Supreme Court denied the New York City Department of Education and four of its administrators the right to dismiss my case. It now allows my attorneys the ability to expose illegal retaliatory actions taken against me for exposing danger and failure in a school run by minority staff members closely tied to democratic elected officials hurting minority students and their families.
Following my case from the beginning is long and tedious, as it dates back to initial reporting in 2004. However, my lawsuit, filed in 2011, answers questions of how and why we are in the place of depression and failure, in high crime and economic distress, especially in places like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.
Months after my lawsuit, the Department of Education and the teachers union filed a termination lawsuit arguing insubordination to those four supervisors named as defendants in my initial lawsuit.
Transcripts confirm almost every complaint I filed in my reports and lawsuit to be accurate. Supervisors hit students and they didn’t follow mandated reporting and disciplinary procedures for bullying, and violence. Weapons were unaccounted for and guidance and special needs services were not being provided. Worse, they broke whistleblower confidentiality laws and were responsible for parents threatening and attacking me.
Since my seemingly illegal termination in 2012, the Department of Education refuses to provide pertinent discovery demands and witness depositions citing the termination as their defense.
However, since the termination, almost everything I factually reported unfortunately turned out to be true. This includes:
- The district superintendent arrested for sexual assault in 2017.
- A principal arrested for defrauding the Housing Authority.
- An assistant principal, an immediate supervisor for me and a defendant in my lawsuit, was involved in supervising a teacher between 2007-2009 who was found guilty of sexually abusing second graders in another school. One former student, in 2018, won a $16 million civil judgment against the city for the abuse. In 2021, another student filed a similar lawsuit.
- A nonprofit organization based out of my school had its leader arrested for fraud and stealing $85,000.
- The middle school closed for low performance and declining student enrollment.
- In a 2020 deposition of one of the defendants, the supervisor admitted she tampered with evidence submitted on the Department of Education’s behalf and used against me in the termination decision and possibly perjured herself under oath in 2012.
- In 2021, a black parents group threatened to sue the New York Department of Education over poor student performances and safety issues.
- A republican candidate for assembly that won on election night in 2022 by almost 300 votes suddenly lost his race after a challenge by the democratic opponent in court who was endorsed by the United Federation of Teachers and the daughter of the County Clerk. The same County Clerk, with close ties to the teacher’s union, signed my paperwork. The clerk should have recused herself from both cases. Worse, the signatures don’t look similar.
- Multiple local elected officials tied to the school supervisors were either arrested, served jail time or under investigation (letter dated weeks after lawsuit served and published story in New York Post)
