Liza Cruz Diaz, Former Principal, Accused Of Stealing School Money For Daughters 'Sweet 16' (VIDEO)

Liza Cruz Diaz, 45, has been removed from her position as principal of Public School 31 in the Bronx, New York, after being accused of stealing around $5,000 from the school, the New York Daily News reports.

An investigation was launched after a tipster claimed Cruz Diaz falsified overtime records with the school payroll secretary. According to the report, officials caught discrepancies in the time she clocked out and the video footage of her leaving the school.

My Fox New York reports Cruz Diaz also spent around $90 of school money to pay for her daughter's "sweet 16," as well as deleting financial records once she became aware of the investigation.

While the Department of Education says she's been reassigned to "administrative duty," the My Fox reported some officials are lobbying for her termination despite her tenured status.

"There’s a variety of ways people steal money or time," Richard J. Condon, the special commissioner of investigation told The New York Times. "She was doing this on a daily basis."

The investigation found Cruz Diaz was paid for a total of 111 hours that she did not work, costing the school system around $4,800. According to the Times, however, if she had been fabricating her hours since 2008 as the payroll secretary said, she could have cost the district almost $40,000.

My Fox New York reports the commissioner said if the allegations hold, there is a strong possibility she'll be arrested.

WATCH:

Comments

[Mailman]

10:44 PM on 01/15/2012

She won't be fired that what a union is for to get the screwups off.

[EmmaNYC]

01:35 PM on 01/16/2012

If she is not fired, it will be the fault of the Dept.of Education, not her union, CSA (the Council of Supervisors and Administrators). Her union is there to make sure that all proper due process procedures are followed, but if the investigation reveals that she is guilty of a crime, the Dept. of Education will make the decision as to what the punishment will be. The NYC Dept. of Education, who selects these miscreants to be administrators, is very loathe to fire any of them because it might reflect badly on Mayor Bloomberg's policy of allowing principals to run their schools, including their budgets, without oversight. A teacher would immediately be removed, investigated and brought up on charges for termination. A principal rarely.

[Rich914]

08:47 PM on 01/14/2012

Criminal activity is grounds to revoke tenure,

[dneil55859]

03:41 PM on 01/14/2012

She wasn't fired? this is why tenure needs to end

[Absolute]

08:25 PM on 01/14/2012

Tenure doesn't prevent the city from firing teachers or principals. That is a myth.

[EmmaNYC]

01:20 PM on 01/16/2012

Principals don't have tenure in NYC - so much for your comment.

In accordance with American justice (innocent until proven guilty), the Dept. of Education is waiting for the investigation to be completed before deciding about a punishment, such as termination.

[Absolute]

03:21 PM on 01/14/2012

"...some officials are lobbying for her termination despite her tenured status."

Tenure does not prevent an employee from being fired.

[Troy Lingle]

07:27 PM on 01/13/2012

While I believe there are a lot of good tenured teachers out there I also believe there needs to be a stipulation and a REVIEW BOARD in place for those situations where tenured teachers are no longer employable due to their own inexcusable actions. This would raise teacher standards as well as protecting taxpayer assets. Saw a YOU TUBE video about a year ago, of "A RUBBER ROOM" in NEW YORK. In it were seated the tenure teachers unfit to teach and yet because of tenure were still being paid their regular salaries "TO SIT ALL DAY" in this room. Not to mention the cost to taxpayers with regard to the building where these teachers were being housed daily. Such a waste of taxpayer resources. Expect this may go on though in other major cities I do not know.

[Absolute]

03:23 PM on 01/14/2012

This woman is a principal, not a teacher.

They had so-called rubber rooms because investigations into misconduct were taking months, sometimes years, to resolve. That is nothing more than administrative ineptitude.

Tenure doesn't prevent a person from being fired.

[kbrown2225]

05:38 PM on 01/13/2012

I would think principal would be a salaried employee not an hourly one. This is disgusting, principals make good money.

[Absolute]

03:24 PM on 01/14/2012

It is a salaried position.

[Tara Hunkoff]

02:18 PM on 01/16/2012

I wondered about this too.

If she's salaried, how could she claim overtime pay in the first place? What am I missing about this situation?

[kbrown2225]

02:27 PM on 01/16/2012

I was thinking the same thing, I have held a number of salaried positions and the one thing they had in common was no overtime.

[chris784100]

04:14 PM on 01/13/2012

Wow the only thing more annoying than her stealing the 5K is her stupid hyphenated name. We get it your simply too important to change your name. So annoying.

[emmeaki]

08:55 PM on 01/13/2012

First of all, there is no hyphen anywhere in her name. Second of all, many Latinos are given their father and mother's surnames at birth. And third, your comment has nothing to do with the story whatsoever.

[Absolute]

03:24 PM on 01/14/2012

What hyphen are you referring to?

[mr52pickup]

03:55 PM on 01/13/2012

All I know is that even if she is fired and convicted of a crime the money that went into her penison account the years she was stealing is safe. It is just another public offcial that is corrupt and will reap benefits paid by the American tax payer.

[Gareth Robinson]

09:09 PM on 01/15/2012

You should avoid making false blanket statements.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/05/nj_panel_rules_public_employee.html

http://www.nasra.org/resources/Forfeiture_statutes.pdf

[Tara Hunkoff]

02:32 PM on 01/16/2012

I nominate your misspelling of "pension" for Typo of the Year. Thanks!

[celticfireusa]

03:22 PM on 01/13/2012

She making o ver $ 100,000..how low can you go !

[slowhanddean]

01:51 PM on 01/13/2012

She's so good with money they will promote her to a superintendent position. That's how it works in the Obama administration.

[Venicelady]

09:38 PM on 01/13/2012

No, here in NYC we have King Bloomberg, and his faux education "Chancellor" , Dennis Walcott.

[Absolute]

03:25 PM on 01/14/2012

Obama doesn't run the NYC public schools, Mayor B1oomberg does.

[red4182]

12:51 PM on 01/13/2012

She will be arrested and put in jail but the union will make sure she keeps her job.

[Gareth Robinson]

09:13 PM on 01/15/2012

Actually, the union, in this case the CSA, will ensure that the NYC DOE follows the due process procedures that it agreed to through collective bargaining. If you have a problem with the process, you should be sure to blame the politicians who agreed to the process as well as the union.

[paid trawler]

12:35 PM on 01/13/2012

another one buying krap she can't aff0rd and is unnecessary.

[ra5206]

11:40 AM on 01/13/2012

Finally... a story that takes place in a school that doesn't involve stealing the innocence of someone's youth... only money. How quaint.

[FOXYROSE]

10:57 AM on 01/13/2012

Principals make good money! She is nothing more than a thief and needs to lose her job and be prosecuted, that is what would happen to any of us. Tenure must mean you are exemp..t from losing your job no matter what.

[Ariel Bonzai]

12:43 PM on 01/13/2012

She was paid to well, and still she was greedy enough to teal from children. What a lowlife.

[FOXYROSE]

06:11 PM on 01/13/2012

A real pillar of society and roll model for our children. I know people that have had a lot more stress in life than this woman and they never even considered stealing.

[brokenleoheart]

10:53 AM on 01/13/2012

tsk tsk tsk