By Dan Murphy
My daughter graduated from Lakeland High School, class of 2018. So, the recent bit of bad news coming out of Lakeland is both disturbing and surprising. Our headline comes from the group Lakeland RISE. At a recent home game, Lakeland vs Nyack, the Nyack Cheerleaders reported that they heard racists slurs from someone in the crowd, once during halftime, again at the concession stands, and finally when they were leaving.
Several news reports claim that an investigation is underway by either the Yorktown Police or the Westchester County police. We certainly hope so, and hope that a video can be found of who it was who had the audacity to do this three different times? Without any adults in the crowd hearing them? Or anyone in the crowd who heard it coming to the Police?
Lakeland RISE wrote, “We were dismayed to hear that Nyack cheerleaders at a Lakeland football game were taunted with racial epithets. We feel the district continuously dodges its responsibility to undertake serious, and much-needed, equity work. While improving crowd control and working with local police to secure events are fine measures, they are not a substitute for the district-wide, systemic changes needed to educate students, train staff and increase educator diversity. We’re calling on the district to select members of the Equity for All committees that are committed to supporting and implementing substantive, district-wide changes. They should also be able to undertake meaningful building-level initiatives, such as school climate surveys, without ongoing interference from the district administrators or board of education.”
We would recommend another way that might also be useful. (We are assuming that a student in the crowd made the slur). Find out who did it and who said it and tell the school district and the Yorktown community.
A few years ago, at a victory celebration for Yorktown Supervisor Matt Slater, one of his supporters called Slater’s democratic opponent, Vishnu Patel “A Sand N-word.” That person was exposed and was embarrassed by his actions. Let that happen again with this incident.
Most of the students at Lakeland High School don’t condone what was said. This is a blemish on them as well, even more reason to find out who did it. Lakeland student Nick Jurado was interviewed by WABC TV-Channel 7 and said, “That’s just something we don’t want coming in here,” Jurado said. “We don’t condone that at all. We respect everybody we play, including the cheerleaders.”
Another Lakeland student, Nalia James said, “It’s upsetting, but it’s not surprising at the same time. Because we go through stuff like this on almost a daily basis with people in our schools.”
“Racist and hurtful comments are never acceptable and have no place in our community, and we take reports of this nature very seriously,” Lakeland Superintendent Karen Gagliardi said in a statement. “We are working closely with the Superintendent of Nyack Schools, our administrative team, and local police to investigate this matter and ensure all feel welcomed, respected, and safe on our school grounds.”
Nyack Superintendent Yom said, “Any incidents of harassment, bullying or discrimination are investigated, so that we can ensure that appropriate action is taken immediately.” We wonder what, if any, investigation or video might be found back in Nyack that might be helpful here.
SOMEBODY HAS TO KNOW WHO SAID THIS
The second incident concerns former Lakeland teacher Alejandro Mendoza, who is accused of grooming a 16-year-old student and repeatedly having sexual intercourse with her in his office and classroom at Walter Panas High School, according to a News 12 report.
Medoza resigned from his Lakeland position this year but was recently hired in the Monore-Woodbury school district. Five days after he was hired, a civil lawsuit was filed by his former student in Lakeland, alleging that he had sex with her on numerous occasions, most inside Panas High school. The district was notified by the now-former student’s attorney of the allegations last April.
“Lakeland RISE would like to address two recent disturbing incidents in the Lakeland school district. The allegations against a former Walter Panas teacher, and the actions of the Lakeland school district administration, are extremely disturbing. While we don’t know many details, we do know that all allegations of sexual abuse need to be thoroughly investigated, and not by the defendants being accused in the case. We ask that an outside, independent investigation be conducted by a respected third-party that can approach this work impartially so that there’s an accurate understanding of the district’s role in this incident.”
The Lakeland School District said that they reported Mendoza to the NYS Education Department in April, yet he was able to get another job this fall and did not have his license revoked. State law protects accused teachers from revocation of their teaching license until a review proceeding is concluded.
A lawsuit was filed this summer, July 2023, against Mendoza and the Lakeland School District. The details include: “The abuse began in the beginning of her junior year when she was 16,” (2015) and “Walter Panas, staff, teachers and leadership were aware or should have been aware of the sexual abuse.”
“He then began to coerce her into performing oral sex,” when she was 16. When she was 17, “Mendoza eventually pressured and coerced her into engaging in sexual intercourse,” and “sexual activities on and off school grounds,” “at least a few times a week, and during some months, almost every day.”
“Mendoza made little effort to hide his sex abuse from his colleagues and/or students at Panas High school.” “Many times, faculty and employees would observe Mendoza taking her into his classroom or office for a long period of time.”
“Faculty were aware that she was NOT A STUDENT OF MENDOZA’S”
“The principal of Panas, Keith YI, contacted the victim’s mother, expressing concern that she was spending too much time with Mendoza after school.”
Mendoza and the student then began meeting off school grounds, in his car. The lawsuit also alleges that the student and Mendoza engaged in social media activity including “pictures of his genitalia.”
In 2018, we published a story titled, Resident Claims Misconduct in Lakeland Schools, link https://yonkerstimes.com/resident-claims-misconduct-in-lakeland-schools/
In that story, Westchester resident Anthony Cassone alleged that more than one Lakeland School District teacher was engaged in sex abuse with students. While Cassone did not name Mendoza at the time, he has now confirmed to us that Mendoza was one of three Lakeland School District teachers having sex with their underage students. And Cassone claims that Mendoza had more than one victim while he was teaching at Lakeland.
More on this story next week.
