The principal of a Brooklyn high school for new immigrants had five students do hard labor moving furniture for her instead of doing schoolwork -- a daylong field trip from hell that included kids being tossed around in the back of a U-Haul truck, The Post has learned.
It's at least the second time that Altagracia Liciaga, principal of Multicultural HS in Cypress Hills, has been investigated for allegedly outrageous behavior toward her students.
Liciaga had sent the students on the dangerous excursion to a Midtown warehouse to pick up school furniture, with three of the teens sitting in the box truck's dark cargo hold for both legs of the round trip, which each lasted 1½ hours.
Brigitte Stelzer
READIN' & RIDIN': Altagracia Liciaga, principal of Multicultural HS, had students ride in the back of U-Haul box truck to run a dangerous errand.
Theodore Parisienne
Multicultural HS
While two students sat up front in the cab of the truck with a student aide driving, the other three were forced to ride in back -- including one teen who tied himself down with a scarf to keep from bouncing around like a pinball.
"I thought the trip was very dangerous," said one of the teens, who like most kids at Multicultural HS is a recently arrived Spanish speaker. "In the back, there [were no seat belts] for us. If I had known that ahead of time, I wouldn't have gone."
No permission slips were filled out by parents for the unscheduled trip, teachers said.
The student, who did not want to be identified for fear of retribution, said he stepped up when Liciaga was seeking volunteers because he likes to help out and because he assumed the errand wouldn't take long.
Instead, he and the four other students left the school before 10 a.m. on Dec. 14, hauled more than a dozen heavy cabinets into the truck and returned to the school after 3 p.m.
After they had unloaded all the cargo on the third floor of the school, Liciaga thanked them by giving them tacos.
A city Department of Education spokeswoman told The Post that Liciaga had been reprimanded.
"The allegation regarding the furniture was substantiated, and the principal received a letter of reprimand," the rep said.
But an education source expressed outrage over what he saw as a slap on the wrist.
"A letter of reprimand is an outrageously light punishment for such an egregious breach of parents' trust," he said.
"I . . . wonder whether the same standard of justice would have been applied had their [officials'] children been the ones sent out in the back of that cold, dark and uninsured U-Haul truck."
Teachers at the school said such treatment of students was par for the course for Liciaga.
They cited an incident in which Liciaga allegedly warned students who had been involved in a cafeteria fight that immigration officials would be called.
Most of the kids at the school, like Liciaga, are Dominican immigrants.
The DOE is investigating the allegation.
Asked outside her Bronx home about the incidents, Liciaga said only, "Many of these issues are under investigation, so I cannot comment on it."
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