Money designated for educational trips for homeless children in New York City was, instead, used by school staff members to take their families on vacations—including a trip to Disney World.
The Queens Students in Temporary Housing program was intended to reward underprivileged kids with enriching life experiences. Instead, according to a report by the New York Department of Education, it resulted in several ethical violations by the head of the program, Linda Wilson, and her colleagues.
Investigation into the unethical misuse of the program’s funds began back in March 2019 when a whistleblower found out that Wilson had allegedly encouraged staff to bring family members along on these trips intended for underprivileged students. Staff members forged permission slips using the names of homeless students and signed them off as the student’s parents. The result was a bunch of trips intended for homeless students that were either partially or exclusively attended by the children of staffers.
Some Disney Adults really have no shame.
One especially brazen act of fraud included a visit to Syracuse University that wasn’t actually a visit to Syracuse University. It was a visit to Niagara Falls with a minor stop at the Syracuse University campus to have lunch.
An even more brazen act of fraud saw six children and grandchildren of staffers attend a trip to Disney World in Orlando where only six actual homeless students were allowed to attend. One anonymous person involved in the investigation told investigators that they had to beg Wilson to allow two of those homeless students on the trip.
Wilson denies any wrongdoing, even though there’s tons of photographic evidence of her daughters on some of the trips. Jenna Lyle, a spokeswoman for the city’s Education Department, released a statement on Tuesday saying that all staff members identified in the report have been fired and are no longer employed by the New York City public school system.
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