By Michael O. Allen and Thomas Moran, Record Staff Writers | Sunday, December 2, 1990
The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A01
As Bergen County law-enforcement officials continued their investigation of an elementary school principal accused of molesting pupils, Elmwood Park educators began scheduling counseling sessions for children and meetings with parents.
“To say that we were shocked would be an understatement,” said Michael Schill, president of the school board. “Our first and foremost concern has been the children, and that will always be our concern.”
Victoria Williams, Elmwood Park’s superintendent of schools, called a Monday meeting with parents to begin answering questions arising from the arrest Friday of Samuel R. Bracigliano, principal of the Gilbert Avenue Elementary school for 10 years.
Authorities say the alleged victims three boys, two age 11 and one age 9 are students at the school.
Bracigliano, who prosecutors said is single and lives with his mother in Elmwood Park, was accused of touching the buttocks of one student and taking photographs of three boys in “provocative poses” in his school office.
Law-enforcement investigators will review with school officials whether photographs and videotapes seized at Bracigliano’s home are those of former and current students at the school.
John J. Fahy, the Bergen County prosecutor, said parents who have questions or suspicions should call the Bergen County Sex Crimes Unit at 646-3600.
Williams said that at Monday’s meeting, which will be at 7 p.m. she will attempt to reassure parents that everything possible is being done to help the children.
Also Monday, counseling services will be made available to students and parents during school days for as long as they are needed, Williams said.
“We have a team of counselors, school psychologists, social workers, learning consultants, crisis-intervention counselors, and school nurses, and Bergen County personnel that will help us with this,” she said.
Except to express their shock and disappointment, several school trustees declined to comment on the situation. Many urged that the investigation be allowed to take its course.
Schill issued a formal statement, saying:
“The board suspended Mr. Bracigliano because that is the proper thing to do. We are not implying in any shape or form his guilt in this matter. He is suspended with pay. We want to get this cleared up as quickly as possible. Whether he’s guilty or innocent, the nature of the charges itself triggers a very strong reply.”
Fahy said his office acted swiftly when a parent of one of the alleged victims called to complain Thursday afternoon. Investigators armed with a search warrant seized boxes containing photographs and videotapes of young boys from Bracigliano’s home.
Bracigliano, an unsuccessful candidate for principal of Memorial High School this year, was arrested at about 7 p.m. Neither he nor his lawyer, Louis Mangano, a member of the school board, could be reached on Saturday.
Saturday, a woman who identified herself as the mother of one of the three boys allegedly photographed said the Prosecutor’s Office called her Thursday night and asked her to bring the boy in for to be interviewed.
She said her son told her he had been summoned to the principal’s office through the school intercom during his regular classes on Thursday, and he described what occurred inside the office.
Elmwood Park Mayor Richard A. Mola said that in the 20 years he has known Bracigliano, as a public official and an educator, “people have always held him in high regard.”
“I’ve never heard anything derogatory about him.”
ID: 17325406 | Copyright © 1990, The Record (New Jersey)
Leave a Reply