Yonkers Mayor Wants Investigation: Quick Highlights from First Teachers Union Video

Here’s a quick overview of the last day’s news regarding the first video in our new series on teachers unions, which we released yesterday.

First of all, The Yonkers Tribune is reporting that Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano believes that based on our video, the Yonkers Federation of Teachers should be investigated. Here is the mayor’s statement:

“I found the content of this video to be disturbing and upsetting on many levels. I believe it warrants an investigation into the standard operating procedures of the Teachers Union’s leadership as it brings up questions of the improper safeguarding of our students’ well-being and potential theft of services.”

The editorial board of the New York Post opined the following this morning:

Gonzo journalist James O’Keefe has done it again, stinging YFT officials into helping a “teacher” who admitted he hit a student, used a racial epithet and fled to Mexico.

His hidden cameras caught Puleo and another union official advising fraud and violations of workplace rules to a man they thought was a teacher who’d hit a student.

O’Keefe’s video confirmed what many already know — and the late United Federation of Teachers leader Al Shanker acknowledged, “I don’t represent children. I represent teachers.”

Unaware they’re being filmed, Puleo and her deputy Paul Diamond look utterly unconcerned about harm to the student as they focus on helping the “teacher” keep his job.

Not once in the 17-minute video does Puleo or Diamond talk of notifying authorities about the child abuse. They, instead, pretend to discuss a theoretical situation — plainly, to protect themselves from officially learning damning details — and suggest scenarios where the “teacher” can come out OK.

But there’s nothing theoretical in their reflexive response to protect a teacher at the expense of a student. Puleo even suggests concocting a story about the teacher’s relatives being kidnapped by Mexican drug dealers — so he can file a (false) family- leave request to cover his absence.

Never even mentioned is the idea that a teacher who crossed the line might . . . report the truth and take his lumps.

Here is some local television coverage from Westchester News 12, as well as coverage from the Washington Free Beacon and BizPacReview.