A South Bronx principal has been accused of using school funds to help pay for her daughter's "Sweet 16" party. Liza Cruz Diaz, principal of Public School 31 on East 156th Street, is also accused of stealing nearly $5,000 more and messing with school records to hide her thefts. Jeez, why couldn't she have done things like a normal parent and just asked Nicki Minaj to perform as a favor?
“It is the recommendation of this office that Liza Cruz Diaz’s employment be terminated,” wrote Richard Condon, the school system’s Special Commissioner of Investigation, who also referred the case to the Bronx District Attorney for possible criminal charges. The investigation began when authorities reviewing videotape in February 2010 realized there were 72 discrepancies between when Cruz Diaz punched out of the school for the day and when she actually left. It turned out she had gotten the school’s payroll secretary, Melissa Carey, to help her with that scam—possibly by using intimidation.
A tipster also informed them that Cruz Diaz used a school purchase order to buy gear for her daughter’s birthday party from Oriental Trading. That included eight dozen metallic sunglasses totaling $63.92 and a metallic bead necklace assortment for $19.99 that were described as “the perfect favor for a birthday bash.”
Cruz Diaz joins a long list of badly-behaving principals and school officials, including the principal who was turned on by copy machines, the principal whose students plastered a scantily clad photo of her grinding with a half-naked man around the school, and the city school employee accused of faking her daughter's death in order to extender her Costa Rican vacation.
