The South Bronx principal accused of credit-fudging has landed in more hot water — after students plastered the school with Facebook pictures of a shirtless stud hosing her down.
The Daily News revealed earlier this week that city Education officials are investigating Sharron Smalls, the principal of Jane Addams High School, for a massive course credit scandal that may have jeopardized graduation for half of the current senior class.
On Friday students retaliated by plastering the school with the photo of a bare-chested man spraying the scantily dressed principal with what looks like melted chocolate as the two grind on a dance floor.
Until this week Smalls used the photo for her Facebook profile. The pic has left kids flabbergasted, considering her dress code for the school declares “the thug look is out.”
“I cannot believe my principal would dance like that,” said shocked senior Christine Daniels, 18, who saw the photo online, where it has also been making the rounds on email.
“She doesn't want us to come to school with short shorts and then she turns around and does this,” said senior Tehrra Smith, 17. “It’s gonna be bad for college, very bad.”
Smalls, 43, is accused of handing students chemistry credits for cosmetology courses and geography credits for tourism classes. Teachers say the fraud may lead to more than 100 seniors not graduating from the F-rated school because they lack credits in high-level math courses.
Smalls has already been blasted by teachers and parents over the scandal - and now officials say she should have shown better judgment online.
“When you are in a leadership position in a school, you have to consider the potential downside of exposing your personal life on social media,” said Education Department spokeswoman Margie Feinberg.
But the abysmal performance of Smalls’ school is more important than her performance on the dance floor, said Feinberg.
“This is a school that has for years performed far below citywide averages,” Feinberg said. “This is why we are considering phasing it out.”
Just 45% seniors at Jane Addams graduated on time last year. In 2011, the school earned F’s in every category of its city-issued progress report.
Since the News broke the credit-fudging scandal on Thursday, officials have been scrambling to make sure seniors have the classes they need to graduate.
But some in the school feel the problem won’t be solved until Smalls, who earns $140,074 a year and has been principal since 2007, is removed from the building.
“These photos are just another example of our leader’s poor judgment,” said Stephen Tavano, 58, who has taught math at Jane Addams for 19 years and heads the local chapter of the teachers union.
“No matter how this turns out, principal Smalls needs to go,” he said.
Smalls did not return repeated requests for comment for this article.
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