Pubdate: Tue, 08 Nov 2005
Source: Herald News, The (Fall River, MA)
Copyright: 2005 The Herald News
Contact:  http://www.heraldnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3604
Author: Will Richmond and Gregg M. Miliote, Herald News Staff

SLADE PARENTS UNLEASH FURY

FALL RIVER -- Two days after first reading in The Herald News that 
their children's principal had been quietly suspended a month ago for 
abusing crack cocaine, Slade School parents reacted with venom, 
slamming both the School Department and the mayor's office for the 
alleged cover-up. "We were lied to for months about this principal, 
and then we had to learn about our children's safety in a newspaper," 
shouted Sheila Bardsley, the mother of a fourth-grader at the school. 
"The mayor and the school people kept this hush-hush. I blame them all."

Mayor Edward M. Lambert Jr. said in a statement Monday that parents 
should have been notified fully of the situation.

"The school administration should have informed parents about the 
principal's suspension and the reasons for such," the statement read.

Slade School Principal Frederick L. Cippolini was suspended with pay 
by the School Department about a month ago after he was charged with 
assaulting an ex-student and admitted to being a habitual crack cocaine user.

The criminal charges or his suspension, however, were never made 
public by the School Department or other city officials.

The Herald News received the information about Cippolini Friday 
morning from an anonymous source.

But when questioned about the matter last week, Superintendent 
Nicholas A. Fischer said Cippolini was, to the best of his knowledge, 
already in a rehabilitation program prior to his arrest and 
adequately performing his duties as principal.

Fischer said Monday, however, that he only learned of Cippolini's 
admitted habit after the Police Department notified him.

"I was not aware he was in a rehabilitation program when the charges 
came out," Fischer said. "When I found out, that's when he was 
suspended with pay because of the allegations."

Fischer also said an agreement has been reached with Cippolini, 
placing the principal on leave for the remainder of the year, to be 
followed by Cippolini's official retirement at the end of the school 
year. Calling the situation a personnel matter, Fischer would not say 
if Cippolini would continue to earn a salary.

Fischer said a letter was being sent home with Slade School students 
at some point this week to explain the situation surrounding Cippolini's leave.

Without knowledge of Cippolini's agreement, parents waiting for their 
children outside the former St. Patrick's School -- which is being 
used for Slade students while the current Slade school is demolished 
and rebuilt -- Monday afternoon claimed it is "ludicrous" to allow an 
admitted crack cocaine user to continue to work as a principal at an 
elementary school.

"Our city leaders have to be held accountable for this. This 
principal should have been fired or removed from the school 
immediately," said Teo Linda, the mother of a second-grader. "I'm 
disgusted by the whole thing. The school should have at least sent us 
a letter explaining the situation instead of constantly lying to us 
and covering this whole mess up."

Linda, like a dozen other parents, said they constantly asked what 
was going on with the principal during the past year because, 
according to them, he was routinely taking days off and not showing 
up for work.

Parents said they were given various explanations, including that 
Cippolini was ill, on vacation, had been in a car accident, was on a 
personal leave of absence, had retired, had quit or that there was a 
"little problem."

"They told us all this stuff, but never told us the truth," said 
Jennifer Kozakiewicz, the mother of a third-grader. "We were lied to, 
and that can't be denied."

Other parents said although they were irate about the alleged 
cover-up, they are more concerned about the safety of their children 
while in Cippolini's care.

"Any of our kids could have found a piece of crack on the ground, put 
it in their mouth and died from it," said Jennifer Anctil, the mother 
of a fourth-grader.

Pam Downey, the mother of adaughter attending the school, said she 
expects more from the principal. "This comes as a shock because he's 
the principal. He should be trying to teach kids to stay away from 
drugs," she said.

Denise Antaya, a member of the Fall River Parent Teacher 
Organization, said she is "upset" that information about Cippolini 
was "hidden" from her organization and Slade School parents.

"We should have been aware of this and (Cippolini) should have been 
pulled from the school a lot sooner," Antaya said. "Now all our kids 
are talking about hard drugs amongst each other. We should have been 
given a heads-up, so we could have talked to them about this."

After hearing of the parents concerns, Fischer defended his decision 
not to notify parents immediately. He said because Cippolini was not 
convicted in court, it was a personnel matter.

"Until a person is convicted or indicted, and I don't feel that a 
student's health or safety or a parent's health and safety are in 
jeopardy, then I believe it is a personnel matter," Fischer said. "If 
a parent had asked me, I would have told them that he was on leave."

Police response

The crack cocaine revelation becoming public stemmed from what police 
called an unrelated incident early last month.

Police Chief John M. Souza explained Monday that Cippolini's name 
never showed up in daily arrest logs because he was never actually 
physically arrested.

Instead, the 59-year-old Cippolini was summonsed into court on 
charges of assault and battery, and assault and battery with a 
dangerous weapon.

Cippolini, according to Souza and a police report penned by Officer 
Michael Osborne, walked into the police station to file a complaint 
against his friend, Timothy Mulcahy.

In the report, Cippolini claimed Mulcahy assaulted him after the two 
got into an argument about Mulcahy allegedly using Cippolini's credit 
card in a fraudulent manner. During the interview with Osborne, 
Cippolini volunteered the information regarding his crack cocaine habit.

But after following up with Mulcahy, Osborne received a different 
version of events, leading him to the conclusion that he should 
summons both men into court on a cross-complaint.

However, the charges against both men were dropped prior to their 
scheduled arraignments, because neither wanted to testify against the other.

The police report also stated Cippolini and Mulcahy had first met 
each other 25 years ago when Mulcahy was a student in a class of Cippolini's.

Souza explained the procedure used for charging Cippolini, saying 
because the alleged assault was not witnessed by police or a third 
party, police chose to summons both men into court instead of 
physically arresting them.

Physical arrests are listed in the department's daily logs, but 
summonses are not.

Souza also revealed he was first notified of Cippolini's status with 
the Slade School a few days after police decided to charge him criminally.

"When I came to work on Monday (Oct. 10, after the incident occurred 
on Oct. 7), it was brought to my attention that we had a situation 
where a school principal was going to be charged and had admitted to 
crack use," Souza said.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman