Oct 28, 2026, 5:02 PM

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Updated

Babylon Superintendent of Schools Carisa Manza:

The Babylon School District has condemned and will continue to condemn, in the strongest possible terms, the behavior and culture of permissiveness and predation that former students brought forward in 2021. That conduct is despicable, and it has no place in any school. We remain grateful to those students for finding the courage to come forward.

With a new administration and Board of Education, we have spent the past five years establishing a new culture that puts the safety of our students first. Early on, we took a number of proactive and concrete steps to protect our students, including a new adult student fraternization policy, a partnership with the Crime Victims Center that includes training for staff and students in all grades; weekly visits to the junior-senior high school; anonymous reporting infrastructure for students, staff, and community members; and a Citizen's Advisory Committee. All of these steps were carried out within a year of the allegations being brought forward.

In more recent years, our district has proactively tightened protections and ensured any reports of misconduct are handled appropriately and quickly. Our entire administrative staff underwent extensive Title IX training from a recognized external organization. We hired a full-time executive director of HR who also serves as the Title IX and DASA Coordinator. And even while negotiations with the Attorney General’s office were ongoing, we retained an external monitor to ensure the district’s continued compliance with Title IX and DASA and to work with the district on adopting best practices in both areas. Additionally, working with the Attorney General's office, the district has overhauled Babylon's Title IX and DASA reporting structure and numerous District policies to ensure strict accountability and prompt, effective responses to any report concerning such conduct. The district has also made multiple improvements to the information on its website and to its reporting form for filing such complaints.

Taken together, these reforms represent substantial progress and reflect the district’s willingness to engage with the Attorney General’s office, and to do everything in its power to protect our students. We are therefore perplexed that the Attorney General's office views the district of acting in bad faith and neglecting its responsibilities. At every step, we have worked collaboratively with the Attorney General’s office to update our policies, protections, and practices to ensure student safety, often going above and beyond what that office has requested. The Attorney General’s office has even recently credited the district with such efforts.

It has also been nearly five years since we provided our investigative materials to the Attorney General, a period during which the Attorney General’s office sought multiple delays through tolling agreements. Despite the substantial length of time, and multiple requests from the district, we have yet to see a final report on her office's findings. Instead of issuing that report or bringing its claims in a court of law where the district would have a full opportunity to respond, the Attorney General’s office has chosen to release limited findings to the news media and not to the district directly. We would welcome the release of the final report, as the district has been requesting, so that the district can identify any other areas in which we can further strengthen our student and staff protections. We look forward to its publication.