Tag Archive for: sexual harassment

Former Staffer Accuses New York Governor Cuomo of Sexual Harassment

In a blog post published Wednesday at Medium, a former aide has accused embattled, lethally incompetent New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment.

Lindsey Boylan, the former deputy secretary for economic development and special adviser to Cuomo, claimed he repeatedly touched her body, attempted to kiss her on the mouth, invited her to play “strip poker,” and overtly objectified her. She documented these claims in the blog post with screenshots of emails and texts.

Boylan added that Cuomo’s top female staff members “normalized” the governor’s conduct. In 2018, she says, after Cuomo allegedly kissed her without consent, “I came to work nauseous every day. My relationship with his senior team — mostly women — grew hostile after I started speaking up for myself. I was reprimanded and told to get in line by his top aides, but I could no longer ignore it,” so she resigned.

These damning allegations come as Cuomo’s career is already going down in flames. After spending all of 2020 falsely blaming former President Trump for mishandling the coronavirus, and publishing a book touting himself as a hero of the pandemic, Cuomo has been exposed for trying to suppress the truth about skyrocketing nursing home coronavirus deaths in his state for fear of a federal investigation — which is now underway.

He has also been exposed by a fellow Democrat, New York Rep. Ron Kim, for threatening to destroy Kim’s career over revelations of the coronavirus scandal. NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio has thrown Cuomo under the bus, siding with Rep. Kim, and New York state lawmakers are calling for Cuomo’s emergency powers to be stripped from him. Even fellow Democrats are beginning to call for Cuomo’s resignation or recall.

“Governor Cuomo has earned his title as Worst Governor in America, and now every New Yorker knows that he is a criminal sexual predator,” NY Rep. Elise Stefanik, a Republican, declared in a statement.


Andrew Cuomo

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Former Aides Reveal Details of Cuomo’s Toxic Personality

In November 2020, former Cuomo aide and consultant Alexis Grenell described the governor as a “snarling attack dog who gaslights fellow Democrats and deploys staff to call his female critics ‘f—-g idiots.’” She characterized Cuomo’s promotion of his new book in which he discussed his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic — even as the pandemic continued to claim many victims across New York State — as an act of hubris. “St. Andrew, our savior of the spring, is now milking his 15 minutes of fame for an extra 30,” said Grenell. “The book is an undignified victory lap by the facts-first persona that won him legitimate praise to begin with, underscoring the point that for Cuomo it was always more about presentation than substance.”

Grenell called it “genuinely depressing” that Cuomo, who had recently won an Emmy Award for his televised news conferences about the coronavirus during the spring and summer of 2020, was now “so eager to be flattered by Ben Stiller,” one of the celebrities who had praised Cuomo for his award. “It’s almost hard to remember how he ridiculed two-time Emmy Award–winner Cynthia Nixon back in 2018 for being an unqualified celebrity,” Grenell said in a reference to Cuomo’s opponent in the 2018 Democratic gubernatorial primary. “Turns out he just wanted to trade places all along.”

“The self-described ‘cool dude in a loose mood,’ threw a Trump-style tantrum,” Grenell added, describing how Cuomo, during a recent press conference in Albany, “blew a gasket” when he called reporters “obnoxious and offensive” after they asked him if New York City’s public schools would be shut down because of rising numbers of COVID-19 infections in the city. Asserting that Cuomo is “more about presentation than substance,” Grenell said: “It’s why he and his staff reflexively insult anyone who criticizes his handling of the pandemic or insists on returning to the normal system of democratic governance as Jefferson envisioned it.”

To learn more about Andrew Cuomo, click here for his profile.

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FL, GA Education Ethics Differ on Sexual Harassment?

Based on primary source documents and information from the Education Practices Commission of the State of Florida and the Georgia Professional Standards Commission, the penalty for a specific sexual harassment case seems to vary greatly with a wide range of extremes between the two states.

Former Miami-Dade County Public Schools assistant principal at Miami Central Senior High School and current principal/director with Clayton County (GA) County Public Schools Melvin K. Blocker received two vastly different outcomes stemming from a case of alleged sexual harassment from the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 school years.

According to the Florida EPC’s Final Order:

During the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 school years, Respondent served as a principal of a public school in the state of Georgia. During this time, Respondent sexually harassed a teacher. Respondent’s conduct included, but was not limited to, stating that the teacher “was the kind of girl [he] and [his] friends would have run a train on in college,” or words to that effect.

Respondent retaliated against the teacher for seeking conciliation of her grievances. Respondent stated, “teachers who went to [Georgia Association of Educators] about issues no longer work at [Respondent’s] school,” or words to that effect.

As a result of this conduct, Case PSC 09-7-11 was opened, and the Georgia Professional Standards Commission found probable cause against Respondent.

The Georgia Professional Standards Commission and Respondent entered into an agreement with respect to Case PSC 09-7-11. On or about June 30,2010, the Georgia Professional Standards Commission issued a Consent Order suspending Respondent’s educator’s certificate for five days, from June 8, 2009 through June 12, 2009.”

The Georgia Professional Standards Commission did indeed suspend his certificate for five days, which seems to many like a slap on the wrist.

To Florida’s credit, the Education Practices Commission permanently revoked his Florida Educator’s Certificate on October 15, 2014.

Why the stark difference?

According to the Georgia Professional Standards Commission, Mr. Blocker may indeed be in trouble given the teacher certification rules, which state:

The Clearance certificate is issued at the request of a the employing Georgia local unit of administration (LUA) to educators who satisfactorily complete fingerprint and background check requirements and do not have a certificate that is currently revoked or suspended in Georgia or any other state. All educators employed by a Georgia LUA must hold a Clearance certificate. There are no academic requirements necessary to qualify for this certificate. All holders of this certificate are subject to the Georgia Code of Ethics for Educators.”

Strangely enough, the Florida EPC Final Order states copies were furnished to other related Florida Department of Education entities but not to the Georgia Professional Standards Commission- unless a separate communiqué was sent and not mentioned.

It will be interesting to see what course of action the Georgia Professional Standards Commission decides to take.

A reasonable person may conclude that they would not want a female relative or significant other in Mr. Blocker’s employ or purview.

Though these incidents have occurred 5-7 years ago, has Mr. Blocker truly learned the error of his ways or have other incidents occurred and were covered up and/or repressed afterwards?

Time, and a thorough investigation, will tell.