Six Department of Education Employees Accused Taking Their Kids on Disney Trips Meant For Homeless Students
Six Department of Education employees are under fire for using forged permission slips to take their kids on city-funded trips to Walt Disney World. The trips were meant for homeless students.
Linda M. Wilson, a Queens supervisor of the Department of Education’s Students in Temporary Housing program, allegedly devised the scheme. The initiative was intended to give some of the city’s most underserved children the chance to visit Magic Kingdom at Disney World among other locals. In total, around 50 adults and children were able to go on the trips.
Instead of saving slots for the disadvantaged children, however, Wilson and her cohorts took their own kids.
How the Scheme Worked
According to a report from the New York Post, while some homeless students were able to go on the trips, the staffers’ children took up valuable spots.
Here is how the fraud worked. Wilson would decide which staff members could attend a trip. Then, she would assign students to each chaperone, and fill the assigned spots with the staff members’ children.
One Department of Education teacher even “had to beg Wilson to allow him to add two of his students” on a trip to Disney World.
To carry out their scheme, Wilson and other Department of Education officials used the names of homeless students and forged parents’ signatures.
The Special Commissioner of Investigation for city schools eventually uncovered Wilson’s fraud. In addition to the trip to Disney World, Wilson and her cohorts fraudulently took their children to Washington, D.C., New Orleans, and Boston.
(Ryan Wendler photographer)
A whistleblower told the SCI that “few of the homeless students listed on the paperwork actually attended the trips.”
No Charges Were Filed
In spite of her misdeeds, Wilson says she was not terminated by the Department of Education but instead retired.
A department spokesperson would not elaborate on the end of Wilson’s tenure, but did say, “All staff identified in this report are no longer employed by New York City Public Schools.”
Photo: Miriam-Webster
Additionally, an SCI spokesperson says the case was not referred for criminal prosecution due to “the lack of available documentation.”
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