Post by Go Plainedge! on Oct 17, 2005 8:43:47 GMT -5
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Something felt wrong in Roslyn
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Susan Cheever
October 17, 2005
In October of 2001, I got a call from Superintendent Frank Tassone's office at Roslyn High School. I had recently published a book about raising my children, and I had spoken on the subject at some schools and bookstores on Long Island. Frank Tassone's associate wondered if I would come to Roslyn High School to speak. I said sure.
Usually school speaking engagements involve a borrowed car and a postage stamp auditorium. Not this one. First, Frank Tassone wanted to come to my neighborhood and meet over coffee to talk about my talk. At 9:30 in the morning on Nov. 5, 2001, Tassone and two other men arrived at my local diner. We sat at the Formica tables, drank coffee and chatted about my book, the weather and the works of Charles Dickens. Was I being interviewed for something? I couldn't tell. I had seen many school administrators in my years of writing and teaching, but I had never seen a high school superintendent with an entourage.
The night of my talk - in the Spring of 2002 - Tassone was busy elsewhere. A limousine came to pick me up; I was welcomed at the school. After I spoke, there was one question that haunted me. A woman with children under 5 asked in an exhausted, frantic voice how I thought she should handle them. All I could do was sympathize.
To say that parents of young children are often overwhelmed doesn't do justice to the way it actually feels. Raising children is the most frustrating job in the world and the most rewarding. There are really no words for the stresses that go with being a parent.
The limousine waiting to take me home was a black stretch so long that when the front of the car went over a bump, I waited a few seconds before feeling the bump in the back seat. As we passed the toll booth on the Triborough Bridge, a siren went off, and we were pulled over onto the shoulder. After some confusion, it turned out that the limousine's EZ pass bill hadn't been paid. A few calls were made, and soon enough we were on our way.
In October of 2002, a few months after I spoke at Roslyn High School, a clerk at the Home Depot in Selden made a call about a Roslyn school district credit card that began the long, sad unraveling of Frank Tassone's secret - the millions stolen from the school district by corrupt, high-flying school administrators. Last month, Tassone pleaded guilty to first- and second-degree grand larceny in Nassau County Court in connection with money spent between 1996 and 2004 on everything from Concorde flights to trips to Las Vegas to limousines. In November, Tassone will be sentenced to 4 to 12 years in prison and ordered to pay back the $2 million for which he was personally responsible.
Parents in search of a good life for their children are desperate, driven people. Most of us want, more than anything, to give our kids whatever advantages we can find for them. The advantage of a good education is one of the few measurable foundations of a successful life. In our passionate search for ways to help our children, we parents are willing to do almost anything. Families routinely move to find a better school system; they refinance mortgages to pay for tutoring; and stay up nights helping with homework; they buy extravagant presents for teachers, and they pressure friends and pull strings.
As a result, parents of school-age children are often gullible. They are blind to many things they might otherwise notice. When I first heard about Tassone's crimes, I remembered how weird my experience with him had been. Why didn't someone else - a parent, a student, a board member - notice this strangeness, I wondered. Then I thought about what it's like to be a parent. I reminded myself how much I want a good education for my own children, and how much time and money I spend to get it.
Tassone, a man without children, says he's sorry he stole all that money. He took advantage of our desire to give our children a good life, and he ran with it. Did he and his entourage understand what easy targets parents are? Perhaps we should care less. Perhaps we should remind ourselves that many of the world's most influential people haven't had good educations. When it comes to our kids, though, generalities just don't cut it. In this way, parents in Roslyn are no different from any other parents in the world, and no less vulnerable.
Susan Cheever's e-mail address is susancheever@yahoo.com.
Copyright (c) 2005, Newsday, Inc.
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This article originally appeared at:
www.newsday.com/news/columnists/ny-etcolumn4473090oct17,0,7268925.column?coll=ny-rightrail-columnist
Visit Newsday online at www.newsday.com
Something felt wrong in Roslyn
--------------------
Susan Cheever
October 17, 2005
In October of 2001, I got a call from Superintendent Frank Tassone's office at Roslyn High School. I had recently published a book about raising my children, and I had spoken on the subject at some schools and bookstores on Long Island. Frank Tassone's associate wondered if I would come to Roslyn High School to speak. I said sure.
Usually school speaking engagements involve a borrowed car and a postage stamp auditorium. Not this one. First, Frank Tassone wanted to come to my neighborhood and meet over coffee to talk about my talk. At 9:30 in the morning on Nov. 5, 2001, Tassone and two other men arrived at my local diner. We sat at the Formica tables, drank coffee and chatted about my book, the weather and the works of Charles Dickens. Was I being interviewed for something? I couldn't tell. I had seen many school administrators in my years of writing and teaching, but I had never seen a high school superintendent with an entourage.
The night of my talk - in the Spring of 2002 - Tassone was busy elsewhere. A limousine came to pick me up; I was welcomed at the school. After I spoke, there was one question that haunted me. A woman with children under 5 asked in an exhausted, frantic voice how I thought she should handle them. All I could do was sympathize.
To say that parents of young children are often overwhelmed doesn't do justice to the way it actually feels. Raising children is the most frustrating job in the world and the most rewarding. There are really no words for the stresses that go with being a parent.
The limousine waiting to take me home was a black stretch so long that when the front of the car went over a bump, I waited a few seconds before feeling the bump in the back seat. As we passed the toll booth on the Triborough Bridge, a siren went off, and we were pulled over onto the shoulder. After some confusion, it turned out that the limousine's EZ pass bill hadn't been paid. A few calls were made, and soon enough we were on our way.
In October of 2002, a few months after I spoke at Roslyn High School, a clerk at the Home Depot in Selden made a call about a Roslyn school district credit card that began the long, sad unraveling of Frank Tassone's secret - the millions stolen from the school district by corrupt, high-flying school administrators. Last month, Tassone pleaded guilty to first- and second-degree grand larceny in Nassau County Court in connection with money spent between 1996 and 2004 on everything from Concorde flights to trips to Las Vegas to limousines. In November, Tassone will be sentenced to 4 to 12 years in prison and ordered to pay back the $2 million for which he was personally responsible.
Parents in search of a good life for their children are desperate, driven people. Most of us want, more than anything, to give our kids whatever advantages we can find for them. The advantage of a good education is one of the few measurable foundations of a successful life. In our passionate search for ways to help our children, we parents are willing to do almost anything. Families routinely move to find a better school system; they refinance mortgages to pay for tutoring; and stay up nights helping with homework; they buy extravagant presents for teachers, and they pressure friends and pull strings.
As a result, parents of school-age children are often gullible. They are blind to many things they might otherwise notice. When I first heard about Tassone's crimes, I remembered how weird my experience with him had been. Why didn't someone else - a parent, a student, a board member - notice this strangeness, I wondered. Then I thought about what it's like to be a parent. I reminded myself how much I want a good education for my own children, and how much time and money I spend to get it.
Tassone, a man without children, says he's sorry he stole all that money. He took advantage of our desire to give our children a good life, and he ran with it. Did he and his entourage understand what easy targets parents are? Perhaps we should care less. Perhaps we should remind ourselves that many of the world's most influential people haven't had good educations. When it comes to our kids, though, generalities just don't cut it. In this way, parents in Roslyn are no different from any other parents in the world, and no less vulnerable.
Susan Cheever's e-mail address is susancheever@yahoo.com.
Copyright (c) 2005, Newsday, Inc.
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
www.newsday.com/news/columnists/ny-etcolumn4473090oct17,0,7268925.column?coll=ny-rightrail-columnist
Visit Newsday online at www.newsday.com