General News
DOE goof exposes speech teachers to identity theft
Mar 16, 2006 5:35 PM
“Basically we were told it was
our responsibility to protect ourselves,
that they weren’t willing to help
unless our personal numbers were used
in a bad way.”— Speech teacher Shari Weiss
A group of speech teachers in District 21 is outraged at the Department of Education for a snafu that seriously compromised their security against identity theft. To add insult to injury, the DOE is refusing to pay for identity theft insurance to protect these teachers from possible loss.
“They’re leaving us high and dry,” said Shari Weiss, one of about 35 teachers who were affected.
The nightmare began last November when DOE district supervisor Marilyn Saxon-Samurro’s laptop computer was stolen from her car. It contained the names, Social Security numbers, addresses and phone numbers of the teachers, most of whom teach in Brooklyn and a few on Staten Island.
“We’ll never know what she was doing with all their personal information in her laptop in the first place,” said Mindy Bornemann, the speech teachers chapter leader, “because they all have a file number, which is the official DOE identity tool.”
Bornemann, UFT Director of Staff Michael Mendel and UFT District 21 Representative Judy Gerowitz contacted DOE attorneys and requested that the department address the possibility of identity fraud.
When Saxon-Samurro met with teachers after the incident, she did not offer an apology. But she did distribute copies of the police report that members had demanded and some credit union information, making teachers sign a receipt.
At a second meeting, the teachers and Gerowitz discussed the issue with Stephanie Sussman, the regional administrator of special education. Sussman tried to assure the teachers that steps had been taken to prevent such an incident from happening again. But the teachers were not satisfied with the DOE’s response.
“It did nothing to make us feel protected right now,” Weiss said. “Basically we were told it was our responsibility to protect ourselves, that they weren’t willing to help unless our personal numbers were used in a bad way. Do they really think that someone who breaks into cars and takes laptops is going to just throw out a bunch of Social Security numbers?”
Gerowitz sent a list of the teachers’ demands to the District 21 attorney, who responded on Feb. 23 with a letter saying that teachers will not be compensated unless they can prove they were harmed.
“This is a blatant disregard on the DOE’s part and won’t be tolerated,” said UFT President Randi Weingarten. “The union is putting the DOE on notice that its policy of allowing people to have access to and to have personal information such as Social Security numbers is unacceptable.”
Bornemann said that “teachers either bought identity theft insurance, renewed it, or added it to existing insurance” after the supervisor’s laptop was stolen. “They’ll be shelling out money to continue being protected and want the DOE to pay for that insurance.”
She said that some of the teachers spent more than 10 hours on the phone getting in touch with their credit companies and their banks to make sure their accounts had not been tampered with. Bornemann noted that one woman “is trying to buy a house and has a block on everything and no one gives a damn at the DOE.”
Teacher Danielle Tartaglia said, “Most of us are in our 30s and 40s with children and when something like this happens, it’s devastating. All we ask is that the DOE take some responsibility for our protection. It’s true this was an accident, but what really makes me mad is how the region is just trying to let this go. Bloomberg and Klein are always saying that the school system, the DOE, should be run like a business. If this happened in the business world, something would be done immediately to secure the futures of the victims. We sure aren’t being treated like business people.”
Weingarten assured the teachers, “We will hold the DOE liable for any loss that any member has as a result of this and are requesting that they pay for identify theft insurance.”
