Yet another Principal, with a record of allegations against him, is still in charge of his school despite having two separate lawsuits filed against him by female staff in federal court who claim that he harassed them out of the school. The Principal is none other than Leadership Academy Principal Howard Kwait of John Browne High School. Mr. Kwait has been in the news previously for his questionable actions as Principal.
In June of this year investigators reported three separate cases of harassment by staff but the DOE chose to ignore the investigator's report. Before that the Conflict Of Interest Board fined Mr. Kwait $4,500 for his vacations with a school aide.
It was at John Bowne that an Indian diplomat's daughter was falsely arrested for cyber bullying and eventually won a lawsuit against the City, school, and the Principal which resulted in a $225,000 settlement from the City for the false arrest.
Since taking over the school as Principal back in 2006, Howard Kwait has been in and out of trouble but due to the apparent protections that he enjoys at Tweed, he has never had to face charges that would have resulted in the removal of most others. For example while he was accused of changing grades by some staff, the DOE did not seriously investigate the charges,
Principal Howard Kwait is just another example of the DOE's "double standard" that ignores evidence against administrators while removing teachers and filing 3020-a charges against them for far less offenses and allegations. To find an updated list of Administrators in need of improvement go to the DTOE website.