When someone at a United Federation of Teachers meeting put laminated photos of a female union rep who opposed UFT President Mike Mulgrew in men’s urinals with the words “PISS ON MY FACE!,” Mulgrew said he would have the disgusting act investigated.
Four months later, the UFT claims it can’t flush out the culprit — and pissed-off critics call it a cover-up.
“Regrettably, it is not possible to discern the identity of the person that placed the placard in the urinal,” Elizabeth DiMichele, a lawyer the UFT hired to conduct a probe concluded in an Oct. 8 email reviewed by The Post, saying she was preparing a final report.
Amy Arundell, the targeted union rep, and her supporters blasted the probe as a sham, saying it aimed to shield rather than expose the offender.
“The investigation was not conducted with openness or urgency,” Arundell told The Post. “It was tightly controlled from the top. Information was managed, not pursued. ”
The shocking display on June 11 at UFT headquarters in Manhattan occurred shortly after Arundell, a DOE employee for 34 years and a union rep for 21 years, had unsuccessfully challenged Mulgrew for the presidency.
Mulgrew publicly condemned the toilet tampering.
Seventeen days later, he fired Arundell from her $270,000-a-year union job along with a purge of six others.
“The UFT was built on collective strength and democratic values,” Arundell said. “What I have seen instead is an increasingly authoritarian culture where loyalty to leadership is prized above truth, and where those who speak up are cast aside.”
Obtained by the NY Post
Meanwhile, UFT general counsel Beth Norton tapped funds from member dues to hire Elizabeth DiMichele, a lawyer with Thompson Coburn, to conduct the probe.
Norton and DiMichele are former colleagues at another firm, Stroock, Stroock & Lavan, which represented the UFT on legal matters, and co-authored an advisory on sexual harassment prevention. DiMichele contributed to Norton’s birthday fundraiser on Facebook. “They are clearly friends,” Arundell said.
According to her internal “Pissgate” reports, DiMichele said the probe had identified “a potential eyewitness, but not the actual perpetrator.”
Seven hours of video footage outside the men’s restroom at 25 Broadway turned up a “person of interest,” someone “behaving strangely,” she wrote.
However, DiMichele showing the video only to select, unnamed people. They did not include Arundell, among others.
“If they were serious about identifying someone, bringing in people who were actually there should have been the first step. It never happened,” said Katie Anskat, a Queens teacher who was the first to complain about the harassment.
“At the beginning, I believed there would be accountability and a serious investigation. Instead, there was silence, inaction, and a complete failure to treat something this serious with the urgency and gravity it deserved.”
The UFT would not answer questions. “The union does not comment on personnel matters,” a spokeswoman said.
The post UFT’s ‘Pissgate’ probe fails to ID culprit who targeted female rival of Mike Mulgrew in vile urinal message appeared first on New York Post.
