SLADE PARENTS UNLEASH FURY

FALL RIVER -- Two days after first reading in The Herald News that
their children's principal had been quietly suspended a month ago for
abusing crack cocaine, Slade School parents reacted with venom,
slamming both the School Department and the mayor's office for the
alleged cover-up. "We were lied to for months about this principal,
and then we had to learn about our children's safety in a newspaper,"
shouted Sheila Bardsley, the mother of a fourth-grader at the school.
"The mayor and the school people kept this hush-hush. I blame them all."

Mayor Edward M. Lambert Jr. said in a statement Monday that parents
should have been notified fully of the situation.

"The school administration should have informed parents about the
principal's suspension and the reasons for such," the statement read.

Slade School Principal Frederick L. Cippolini was suspended with pay
by the School Department about a month ago after he was charged with
assaulting an ex-student and admitted to being a habitual crack cocaine user.

The criminal charges or his suspension, however, were never made
public by the School Department or other city officials.

The Herald News received the information about Cippolini Friday
morning from an anonymous source.

But when questioned about the matter last week, Superintendent
Nicholas A. Fischer said Cippolini was, to the best of his knowledge,
already in a rehabilitation program prior to his arrest and
adequately performing his duties as principal.

Fischer said Monday, however, that he only learned of Cippolini's
admitted habit after the Police Department notified him.

"I was not aware he was in a rehabilitation program when the charges
came out," Fischer said. "When I found out, that's when he was
suspended with pay because of the allegations."

Fischer also said an agreement has been reached with Cippolini,
placing the principal on leave for the remainder of the year, to be
followed by Cippolini's official retirement at the end of the school
year. Calling the situation a personnel matter, Fischer would not say
if Cippolini would continue to earn a salary.

Fischer said a letter was being sent home with Slade School students
at some point this week to explain the situation surrounding Cippolini's leave.

Without knowledge of Cippolini's agreement, parents waiting for their
children outside the former St. Patrick's School -- which is being
used for Slade students while the current Slade school is demolished
and rebuilt -- Monday afternoon claimed it is "ludicrous" to allow an
admitted crack cocaine user to continue to work as a principal at an
elementary school.

"Our city leaders have to be held accountable for this. This
principal should have been fired or removed from the school
immediately," said Teo Linda, the mother of a second-grader. "I'm
disgusted by the whole thing. The school should have at least sent us
a letter explaining the situation instead of constantly lying to us
and covering this whole mess up."

Linda, like a dozen other parents, said they constantly asked what
was going on with the principal during the past year because,
according to them, he was routinely taking days off and not showing
up for work.

Parents said they were given various explanations, including that
Cippolini was ill, on vacation, had been in a car accident, was on a
personal leave of absence, had retired, had quit or that there was a
"little problem."

"They told us all this stuff, but never told us the truth," said
Jennifer Kozakiewicz, the mother of a third-grader. "We were lied to,
and that can't be denied."

Other parents said although they were irate about the alleged
cover-up, they are more concerned about the safety of their children
while in Cippolini's care.

"Any of our kids could have found a piece of crack on the ground, put
it in their mouth and died from it," said Jennifer Anctil, the mother
of a fourth-grader.

Pam Downey, the mother of adaughter attending the school, said she
expects more from the principal. "This comes as a shock because he's
the principal. He should be trying to teach kids to stay away from
drugs," she said.

Denise Antaya, a member of the Fall River Parent Teacher
Organization, said she is "upset" that information about Cippolini
was "hidden" from her organization and Slade School parents.

"We should have been aware of this and (Cippolini) should have been
pulled from the school a lot sooner," Antaya said. "Now all our kids
are talking about hard drugs amongst each other. We should have been
given a heads-up, so we could have talked to them about this."

After hearing of the parents concerns, Fischer defended his decision
not to notify parents immediately. He said because Cippolini was not
convicted in court, it was a personnel matter.

"Until a person is convicted or indicted, and I don't feel that a
student's health or safety or a parent's health and safety are in
jeopardy, then I believe it is a personnel matter," Fischer said. "If
a parent had asked me, I would have told them that he was on leave."

Police response

The crack cocaine revelation becoming public stemmed from what police
called an unrelated incident early last month.

Police Chief John M. Souza explained Monday that Cippolini's name
never showed up in daily arrest logs because he was never actually
physically arrested.

Instead, the 59-year-old Cippolini was summonsed into court on
charges of assault and battery, and assault and battery with a
dangerous weapon.

Cippolini, according to Souza and a police report penned by Officer
Michael Osborne, walked into the police station to file a complaint
against his friend, Timothy Mulcahy.

In the report, Cippolini claimed Mulcahy assaulted him after the two
got into an argument about Mulcahy allegedly using Cippolini's credit
card in a fraudulent manner. During the interview with Osborne,
Cippolini volunteered the information regarding his crack cocaine habit.

But after following up with Mulcahy, Osborne received a different
version of events, leading him to the conclusion that he should
summons both men into court on a cross-complaint.

However, the charges against both men were dropped prior to their
scheduled arraignments, because neither wanted to testify against the other.

The police report also stated Cippolini and Mulcahy had first met
each other 25 years ago when Mulcahy was a student in a class of Cippolini's.

Souza explained the procedure used for charging Cippolini, saying
because the alleged assault was not witnessed by police or a third
party, police chose to summons both men into court instead of
physically arresting them.

Physical arrests are listed in the department's daily logs, but
summonses are not.

Souza also revealed he was first notified of Cippolini's status with
the Slade School a few days after police decided to charge him criminally.

"When I came to work on Monday (Oct. 10, after the incident occurred
on Oct. 7), it was brought to my attention that we had a situation
where a school principal was going to be charged and had admitted to
crack use," Souza said.