April 11, 2016

Patrick Raycraft/Hartford Courant  Gislaine Ngounou, chief of staff of Hartford schools, apologized Monday for not chasing down allegations against Eduardo “Eddie” Genao. By HARTFORD COURANT PUBLISHED: April 11, 2016 at 7:27 p.m. | UPDATED: December 6, 2018 at 1:16 a.m. HARTFORD — A high-ranking Hartford school official has publicly apologized for failing to chase down a recent allegation that a district administrator, now under criminal investigation, was engaging in “potential inappropriate contact” with a minor. “This was an omission of the mind and not an omission of the heart,” Gislaine Ngounou, the superintendent’s chief of staff, wrote in a letter that was emailed to staff districtwide Monday. “I take full responsibility for the failure on my part to aggressively pursue more information.” Ngounou’s apology comes less than a week after Eduardo “Eddie” Genao, a longtime Hartford school administrator, resigned his $176,274-a-year job as the schools’ executive director of compliance after city police notified the district that he was the target of a criminal probe. And it came the same afternoon that Mayor Luke Bronin and Superintendent Beth Schiavino-Narvaez announced that the school system would review its policies and procedures when school employees hear that a child might be at risk of abuse or neglect. 225p The state Office of the Child Advocate is being asked to assist in the review so it is “as thorough, as impartial, and as effective as possible,” Bronin said in a statement Monday. He said the state would look specifically into the school system’s handling of the Genao case. The city’s announcement of the review disclosed that Hartford police are investigating allegations that Genao, 57, “sent inappropriate text messages to a minor” who was not a Hartford student. The investigation is ongoing, Deputy Police Chief Brian Foley said Monday. Genao, a former school principal and Hartford assistant superintendent of early literacy and parent engagement, has declined to comment on the allegations. He resigned on April 5, shortly after police informed school leaders that Genao was under investigation. That same day, Foley has said, police served search warrants and seized evidence in the case. Genao has not been charged with a crime. “Both as a father and as mayor, I feel a profound responsibility to do everything possible to ensure that kids are protected from harm,” Bronin said Monday. “There needs to be a thorough review of what happened in the reporting of this situation, as well as a broader review of the policies and procedures to ensure that officials respond quickly and forcefully whenever there are any warning signs.” At issue is whether top school officials could have intervened a full two weeks before Genao’s resignation. In her email to staff Monday, which did not name Genao, Ngounou said she regretted “the way I handled an allegation brought to my attention of a potential improper contact between a [Hartford Public Schools] employee and a minor.” She received a text message from Aaron Lewis, president of a literacy and advocacy group called The Scribe’s Institute, on March 22 “concerning an allegation of potential inappropriate contact between an unnamed HPS director and an unnamed minor.” Lewis is friends with the mother of the alleged victim in the criminal investigation. Lewis has provided The Courant with screen shots showing his communication with Ngounou, his neighbor, including an initial text message to Ngounou that warned, “I needed to bring a situation to your attention … It’s an urgent matter concerning one of your directors with regard to inappropriate child contact.” Genao’s name was not included in the text message. Ngounou, a top aide to the superintendent since Narvaez began her tenure in mid-2014, sent a follow-up text message that afternoon saying, “I have a couple of minutes now. May I call?” Lewis replied that he was in a meeting and asked to speak in a half-hour. A few hours later, Ngounou texted that the day had been “hectic” and asked “if it’s too late to connect” or if Lewis had “a few minutes now.” By then, Lewis said he decided to bring the issue to school board Chairman Richard Wareing, sending him an email on March 23 with the subject line “IMPORTANT message from Dr. Lewis,” informing him of his earlier attempt at notifying Ngounou. Lewis said he never got a response from Wareing. Ngounou said in her email Monday that she assumed she would reconnect with Lewis, “but neither of us followed up on the matter with each other. … This was a lapse that does not reflect my own professional standards, my commitment to children, or the importance HPS places on the safety of children attending our schools.” She could not be reached for further comment. In a scathing blog post on The Scribe’s Institute’s website, Lewis called for Narvaez, Ngounou and Wareing to resign or be fired. Asked why he didn’t call Ngounou or Wareing when he considered the matter urgent, Lewis said Monday that “they could never try to flip this on me, because I did due diligence.” The mother of the alleged victim told The Courant on April 6 that she was “disgusted” with what she considered to be an initial wall of indifference. “If this gentleman is working at the board of education and you alert the chief of staff that there’s inappropriate contact between a staff member and a student, and they don’t respond? Then they’re in the wrong position,” the mother said. On Monday, Wareing reiterated that he missed the March 23 email from Lewis and didn’t read it until after Hartford police launched their investigation early last week. “I understand why he is upset,” Wareing said. “He sent me an email; I didn’t see it. Does it bother me that I didn’t see it? Yeah, of course it bothers me, because something came right at me and it got by me without me knowing it was there. A kid could have been hurt, and I don’t think I could have lived with myself if that had happened. … I am torn up by this.”