A New York principal told the mother of a teen that she could not guarantee her daughter's safety after the girl exposed the failing high school as blighted by violence, drugs and sex, the New York Post reported Thursday.
Sophomore Alisha Strawder was barred Monday from going to her classes at Paul Robeson High School, a day after the Post quoted her blasting the majority of the school's staffers and security guards as lazy and inept, her mom Kasyra Strawder said.
"You're telling me she can't get into the building because your staff members want to attack her because she told the truth?" a dumbfounded Strawder said she asked school officials.
Last week, Alisha slammed the school as a dump where kids have sex and smoke weed in the stairwells, and where fights and pregnancies are the norm.
"The boys pressure you," she said. "A lot of girls will do anything and everything in the staircase ... "
"If I could burn down this school and get away with it, I would."
But instead of tightening the reins on the out-of-control school, officials put the 15-year-old in an office when she showed up Monday and called her father to take her home, her mother said.
When the mother finally spoke with interim acting principal Simone Grey, she was allegedly told Alisha could come in only if she were put in isolation with a staffer -- and away from students and adults who might retaliate.
"Everyone has taken this personally. We cannot ensure her safety," Strawder said Grey told her.
The distraught mom said she also received a phone call from a district official advising her that Alisha will be granted a safety transfer to attend school elsewhere.
Department of Education spokeswoman Margie Feinberg said officials were investigating the mother's claims, but she disputed her account, saying Grey never said Alisha would not be protected.
"She said the child is not barred from the school and the child is welcome," Feinberg said.
