News

NEW YORK, NY April 26, 2005 —Schools Chancellor Joel Klein says he anticipates that an Assistant Principal in Queens will be removed from her job now that an investigation has confirmed that she called a class of Haitian students "animals."

The Education Department's investigator interviewed fourth and fifth graders in a Haitian bilingual class at PS 34. He said their accounts were credible that Assistant Principal Nancy Miller made them eat rice and chicken with their hands during lunch, and that she called them animals.

But while a couple of students recalled Miller making remarks about Haiti, he said others couldn't confirm that. Nor did he find any evidence that the principal failed to report the incident last month. City Councilman Leroy Comrie, who represents the district, said the principal will have a lot of work to do.

COMRIE: She needs to sit down and really work with this community and show them that she is interested in healing this situation.

Many parents had wanted the principal fired as well.