I am EC, and Saint Francis Prep Has Mistaken Me For Someone Who Gives a Shit - And Who Is the Mole?

It's been too long. It's time to tell the whole story of this website, how it came about, and all the things that happened after it launched. I am an owner of the company that owns this website. On various posts on my website you will see users calling me EC. I attended Saint Francis Preparatory School in Fresh Meadows, NY, from 1983 - 1987. I was an honor student. I had a pretty good experience there up until 1986. In 1986, the head of the Phys. Ed department, Thomas Nuzzi, was my driver's ed teacher. He was a disgusting pig. He tried to get me alone in the driver's ed car or back at his house on several occasions. He often asked me to come over and help feed his dogs and told me he would drive me home. He constantly said things like, "my wife is dying of a brain tumor and I am lonely." He said things like "you are special." He made passes at me in the driver's education car. He made passes at me in front of my friends. When I did not show interest, he got angry. He said he would fail me for driver's ed. Somehow he had "never received" my project that I handed to him directly two weeks earlier. I didn't tell anyone. I was afraid if I told that my father would kill him and go to jail - that's how Italian men feel about their daughters. Later in the semester, Tom Nuzzi and two of his friends were fired for fraud- they were telling parents student ski trips they organized cost more money than they did, and they were pocketing the difference.

Years later, in 2007, I taught business at Saint Francis Prep. I had been a lawyer for several years, but wanted a change. I believed what had happened 20 years earlier was an isolated incident of madness. I was mistaken.  My very first day teaching, a religion teacher told me about a freshman girl who had slept with a teacher. I was told that the administration did nothing until a little girl gave graphic details.

The longer I worked there, the more people came to "the lawyer" with their concerns. A few months into working there, I was told by my then department head, Brother Mark, that the man in charge of the school's finances, Joseph DiSomma, is a convicted jewel thief who was tied to the mafia, and whose mob name is Joey Diamonds. He said everyone in the building knows, but they all overlook it. I googled it. You can google him yourself and see what you think.  Brother Mark promised to protect me as much as he could from all the sordid characters at Saint Francis Prep. Those were his exact words, "I will protect you." Brother Mark quit at the end of my first year there. It was unheard of for a Franciscan Monk to quit working at a Franciscan school and he had to get permission from the powers above him in the Franciscan hierarchy. I was very sad to see him go. He was a good man. He stood up for what he believed in. He gave me three reasons why he was quitting - Br. Leonard (the Principal), Pat McLaughlin ( the Assistant Principal) and Joe DiSomma (the Controller).

Time went on. Story after story after story was told to me by others. Like, for example, how a couple of years before I started working there, a homeless man walked into the school cafeteria and set it on fire. The doors weren't locked and there was no security that day. The reason it wasn't in the news is because the school has graduates working at most of the major networks and they covered it up.

I witnessed horrible injustices myself. At the end of 2008 the school was going to be featured as Cosmopolitan Magazine's Ultimate Prom. The head of the guidance department, Robyn Armon, pretty much hand-picked who would win prom queen, because her niece was involved in running the contest for Cosmo. She picked the cheerleader daughter of the the football coach/Italian teacher. I was advocating for a student in my accounting class who had cancer, and who came to class weak, bald head and all, so she could graduate with her friends. Robyn told me she wasn't "the face of SFP." Really? I would like to think that type of person is exactly who we would want to be the face of SFP. But I guess I was mistaken.  (By the way, the head of Campus Ministries was present for that conversation, so please Prep don't try to lie about it, it would be really pathetic.) And Suzy R., I am sorry I let you down. I tried.

In 2009, my best friend at the school, Andrea, was overheard talking about "Joey Diamonds" with her coworkers. She was called into McLaughlin's office for a meeting. Joe DiSomma was there. She was warned and told never to speak of it again. So she didn't. Later, when all the shit went down with this website, and tons of posts were going up about shady situations at the school, Andrea was accused of being the mole. This information was leaked to me by the real mole, who didn't work at the school at all. But more about the mole later.

During my third year teaching, there was a kid in my accounting class named Brad. Brad was obviously high in class on more than one occasion. I kept sending him to the Dean until he was drug tested. His drug test came back inconclusive because the school nurse had left Mr. Clean on the counter in the bathroom where he had to pee in the cup. So he poured the Mr. Clean into his urine sample. Bingo, he was let off the hook! They let him out of the nurse's office high and he threatened to beat the shit out of me. The next day they sent him back to my class. A few days later, in my communications class (yes, I was blessed to have him as a student in two classes!) he came in asking if anyone had change for a $100 bill. Then he asked to go to the restroom and took his backpack with him. With the help of another student, I put two and two together and I had called security to come to my classroom when he came back from the restroom. They found drugs and cash in his backpack. He had confessed to dealing drugs to hundreds of kids at the school. My question was, why did I have to keep pushing this issue to have some action taken? Oh, because his dad was President of a corporation on Long Island...I see, I see.

It was around this time that the former Dean of Women, Carolyn Szostek told me about a teacher whose name was Stenger. I remembered his name vaguely from when I went to Prep in the 80's. She had said that the administration knew he "touched the boys" and was a "pervert." The administration never did anything about it, and Stenger taught there pretty much until he died. By the way, she said he left almost his entire estate to the school, and made one of the teachers his executor. She had reviewed the accounting for the estate and made sure the teacher had received his executor's commission. A nice, happy ending, except for the decades of boys who had been touched inappropriately by this man. Carol told me about another teacher who was generally considered a pervert.  It was someone in the religion department. When my site went live, a student posted about this man repeatedly whispering in students' ears...coincidence? When Patrick McLaughlin saw that post, he asked me "How could you let such a thing go up on that site about _______________?" This is how I could let it go up, Pat, BECAUSE HE IS a pervert, and somebody f*cking needs to do something about it!

At the end of my 3rd year teaching at the school, my accounting students won the NYC Stock Market Game sponsored by SIFMA. This is no small feat. We beat 1450 teams and were featured in the Daily News, and on the radio news shows in NY. I was temporarily a superstar among the administration. Later, when all the shit went down with my website, teachers were instructed to spread a rumor that I had paid off SIFMA to win. Wow, you guys are loooooowwwww...attack me all you want, but to diminish the efforts of brilliant graduates at your school, that's beyond shitty.

At the beginning of my 4th year working there, I had an idea for a website. I wanted a venting site that people could go to and let off steam. With the recession in the U.S., people were angry. I was going to call it Burnandrotinhell.com, like tell all your troubles to Burn and rot in hell! It was actually my wife's idea to call it that, because that's what she says about things that piss her off. I thought it was a great idea. I asked the Dean of Women, Carolyn Szostek, if I could do such a thing. I asked her because we were friends and she was also the principal's right hand person. She was all in - 150%. She was made an administrator on my facebook fan page. I have her handwriting on my terms of use, which she reviewed and made suggestions about. Her daughter researched copyright issues for me. When I found out I was going to be interviewed about it on the radio, I asked if I should let the principal know. She said "No, it's not necessary." 

She knew I had told some graduates and current students about the site and she didn't have a problem with it. I was not hiding anything. I talked about it openly with faculty and staff (right Ms. V?). I asked the school priest if it was ok to use that name for the site since I worked in a Catholic school. He said it was fine.

Months later, when the website was up and running, kids started posting about their experiences at the school. I was also inundated with Facebook messages from students, past and present, asking for help. Atrocious, egregious, and inexplicable situations at the school were coming to light.

The Assistant Principal Patrick McLaughlin called me in to his office. He said he didn't care about the website but wanted the Bad Teachers and Bad Students sections taken down. The rest could stay. I said I wouldn't do it. He said "Why, because it's good for business?" This man should really be the last one talking about business ethics.

The Principal, Br. Leonard, met with me. Let me rephrase that - he didn't actually "meet" with me. Patrick McLaughlin called me into an office with the school priest and Principal and they sort of ambushed me. They had their little notepads on their laps. So scary! And gee, Carolyn was nowhere to be found! Why wasn't she there? Br. Leonard said he wanted those two sections of my website down. I said no. I had asked him why it was ok for one of his teachers to be in a YouTube video marching in the gay pride parade in his underwear but it was not ok for me to have my website. Everyone knew about this video, which was a year old, and which teachers made fun of and gossiped about constantly (which is how I found out about it). Brother Leonard Conway lied to me and said that the video had been taken down. He lied right to my face and I knew it!  Then I said I wasn't taking down those sections of my site, and he suspended me. Funny, that Dean Carolyn Szostek was not suspended also.  They sent me home.

That night, I told most of the world what had happened on Fox News.

The next day, the principal's secretary called me and told me that if I did not come in by 2:37 pm to meet with the principal I would be terminated. I knew they were going to ask me to take down my site. I didn't go. I said "terminate me" instead.

A few days later, they sent a letter home to parents of every student of the school, telling them I was a rogue teacher who did this all on my own without checking with anyone. I was pissed. I went on Fox again. They told me to go on again I had to give them something different or they would not air my side of the story. I told them about the gay pride parade video. Fox blocked the teacher's face out, but aired it. My then business partner decided we should blog about it, too. He did not block the face out.

I sold out for a bad reason, and more students were mad at me than pleased with me, but that's how it goes. My wife told me not to put the video on air but I didn't listen. I made a mistake and I take responsibility for it. By the way, publicizing the video was never about the gay part. I'm gay, and I have marched. As a teacher, I just never would do it in my underwear. I wouldn't do it in my underwear even 20 years ago when I wasn't a teacher and was buff. But that's just me.

I continued to see disturbing posts and receive messages about things going on at the school. Some of this information was posted or sent to me by "the mole." There was someone on the inside who wanted the truth to come out! However, the mole was not someone who worked at the school. The mole was someone who had f*cked someone in the religion department. The mole was a "swinger". Someone who has lots of sex with lots of people. In fact, the mole had sex with about 1/2 of Prep's female population, both married and unmarried. These swingers meet at a specific bar in Queens and "hook up." (I know which one, I have checked it out, but I won't tell you which one it is. Let them have their fun.)The mole went by the name Angel Amore. Every bit of information he sent me checked out. He told me how to contact graduates who had been sexually harassed by their teachers, and boys who had been grabbed and kissed by the Franciscan Brothers. He gave me info about teachers who had done some naughty things, like loaded porn on school computers. I never asked Angel Amore's real name, and I didn't care. As proof of his swinging with the women of Prep, he gave me access to pictures of him having sex with these women who worked there, and a list of names of his conquests. I don't know if these women know they were photographed, so if they didn't before now, surprise from me to you! You're on Amore cam, parked on AIM. You may call Angel a pervert, but I won't. I'm a lesbian and I'm sure  a good portion of the country, even in the year 2012, would call me a perve. What Angel and these women do is consensual and private. I won't judge it.

So, there were two accounts of Brothers kissing male students. There were several stories of sexual harassment of female students by teachers. There weres stories of extreme nepotism that were purposely being hidden from the faculty by McLaughlin so as to not create a stir (like the head of the religion department hiring her niece and niece's fiance to teach in her department), and there is much more.

There was one post on my website made by a student who had written an article for the school paper about why students should not be forced to wear leather shoes. The premise of the article was that St. Francis was an animal advocate and he wouldn't approve.  This student's story was quashed by the administration - too controversial. I am an animal advocate and this, combined with everything else, just about sent me over the edge. Teachers apparently can do basically anything they want at Prep but a student there can't question in a newspaper article whether it is a good policy for students to only wear leather shoes? Does that seem a little unfair to you?

Threats came on the phone and in the mail telling me to take the posts down. A friend of Joey Diamonds' posted on my site about taking the posts about his true identity down. In the process "Michelle DeRosalito" confirmed (accidentally?) his identity. The posts stayed up. Time went by. I received more threats. Ones I got in the mail were more scary because they always have that "I know where you live" overtone. I got nervous about my family's safety, and the posts came down.

Ironically, just a few days ago a post went up on my website from the administration, faculty and staff wishing me a Merry Christmas and peace in my heart. Really? I find this amusing. I wonder what precipitated that, almost two years after I "was terminated." Be assured, I do have peace in my heart.  You can have peace when you know you are pursuing justice. I now know all the things you've covered up, Administration, and I know I provide a vehicle to bring these issues to light. Hopefully someone in a position of authority will see this - the Pope maybe? - and do something about it.

Be assured of this though: If one hair is harmed on the head of anyone I care about because of this blog all the documentation I have will be published. Included in this pile is what will be a very embarrassing series of texts between a former member of your administration and me. Oh, and pictures, lots of pictures. I don't trust the people in charge of Prep as far as I can throw them, obviously.

I have been asked by those closest to me what result I am hoping for from all this now. I only want what will keep children safe. So I guess I want the administration replaced. All of them, every single one. Nothing will change until that happens. I like change, change is good.

Jan. 10, 2013: Please do not infer that anything written in this blog is about Mr. Krolikowski, because it isn't. He is not alluded to in any of the Burn blogs. Please also be aware that the blog about SFP's phony inflated grading system was forwarded to the Middle States Accreditation Commission last evening at a reader's request. It is important that colleges and universities across the country can rely on transcript information that is submitted to them.

Jan. 1, 2013: I am adding this note today, requesting you read the subsequent blogs. There is information there you will find very interesting. I also expose St. Francis Prep's phony inflated grading system. I wrote that blog specifically so that parents of students know that their kids' grades may not really be the grades they earned.

Jan. 5, 2013: As of today, there have been 4 attempts to hack EC's personal email, with detailed notifications from Yahoo, including that the hackers tried to answer her security questions several times. Also to date, there have been ten anonymous phone calls, including ones on her home line which is unlisted. People who are desperate do desperate things.