IN-Tech comes up clean after DOE probe into toilet scrubbing

The Department of Education has dropped an investigation into corporal punishment at IN-Tech Academy, MS/HS 368, saying students’ claims that they had been forced to clean toilets as punishment were unsubstantiated. 

In 2010, reports surfaced that students, including one eighth grader interviewed by The Press, had been made to clean toilets. At the time, spokeswoman Marge Feinberg confirmed that an investigation into corporal punishment at the school was ongoing. That case has been dropped, Ms. Feinberg confirmed last week, although she would not say when. 

However, Ms. Feinberg would not comment on whether the student lied or if he was reprimanded, simply repeating that the case was unsubstantiated. 

In an e-mail, Rose Fairweather-Clunie, who was the principal when the investigation began, said she is glad her name has been cleared. 

“I have served this community and the DOE for thirty nine years with tireless passion and integrity. I would have preferred to be recognized for that commitment and am saddened that my colleagues and I were named in your paper in such a negative light. You gave a disgruntled few a platform to tarnish our reputations and the good name of our school,” her e-mail read, in part. 

The corporal punishment investigation is not the only one that has been dismissed. 

In December 2010, The Press reported that Ms. Fairweather-Clunie was under scrutiny for a matter unrelated to corporal punishment, another case that was unsubstantiated, Ms. Feinberg said, although she would not give a timeline. 

Dean Jackie Knowles was also under investigation for an incident that appeared to be related to an eighth grade class trip to Washington, D.C. Ms. Feinberg said the anonymous allegations against Ms. Knowles were unsubstantiated because she was misidentified as being on the Washington trip. Dean Wendy Spector was investigated instead and her case, too, was dismissed.