Parents, Students Rally To Support Springs Principal

The past few months have been difficult for Springs School principal Eric Casale, and parents, students, a few teachers, and even a school board member joined together on Sunday in a show of support.

The unsettling time for the principal began when he fell ill at the school in early May, taken away by ambulance, and missed one week of school. The absence came just after Dr. Katherine A. Byrnes, the assistant principal, left her post. Casale did not disclose the cause of his medical incident.

The weekend before his return, the district acknowledged that Department of Education was investigating "a testing irregularity" regarding one student and one staff member that was alleged during April's state assessments. The investigation is ongoing.

News of the possible issue with the state assessment, dredged up a 2004 cheating scandal at a school in The Bronx where Casale worked as principal at the time. According to several news reports, Casale left PS 91 during an investigation into whether he helped cover for a math teacher who gave out test answers on a Regents exam.

The school district has said Casale disclosed the situation to them before he was hired, and parents organized a rally on Sunday to collectively say they didn't care about the past incident.

Patrick Brabant, a parent, organized the rally and handed out some signs that included, "Eric Casale is Springs School."

"Should he have done things differently eight years ago? Possibly. But everyone makes mistakes. Let's move on," Brabant said. "I know I trust him 100 percent."

Dana Lester, the parent of two, said Casale always supports the students, as seen by his response to 14-year-old Anna Mirabai Lytton's death in June, she said. "He got the eighth grade through what an extremely difficult week," complete with graduation as they grappled to deal with the death of their classmate, who was killed while riding her bike in East Hampton Village.