A top-ranking New York City public school official was arrested in his home state of Wisconsin for allegedly using a computer to facilitate a child sex crime.
David Hay, who worked as the deputy chief of staff to the schools chancellor, Richard Carranza, was taken into custody on Sunday at a Milwaukee airport following an ongoing undercover investigation, according to a press release from the Neenah Police Department.
The Department of Education fired Hay following news of his arrest.
“These allegations are incredibly disturbing and absolutely unacceptable,” Miranda Barbot, a spokeswoman for the department, said in a statement. “We took immediate action removing Mr. Hay from payroll and are terminating him. We referred this to the Special Commissioner of Investigation and we will fully comply with any investigation.”
Hay, 39, did not have regular contact with students during his nearly four year tenure in the city's school system.
Wisconsin law defines the charge Hay is facing as someone who “uses a computerized communication system to communicate with an individual who the actor believes or has reason to believe has not attained the age of 16 years with intent to have sexual contact or sexual intercourse with the individual.”
Hay is currently being held in the Winnebago County Jail, according to Patrick Pedersen, an investigative lieutenant with the Neenah Police Department. He is expected to have a bail hearing later this week.
The New York Post reported unnamed sources as saying that Hay "allegedly intended to meet with a minor boy for sex" and that he had been under investigation for several months.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Hay served as a high school principal in two Wisconsin school districts. He began his career in New York City schools by working under former chancellor Carmen Fariña as a director of organizational effectiveness. On LinkedIn, he described his most recent role as leading "a comprehensive organizational effectiveness and change management strategy" for the DOE. He frequently tweets about public school initiatives.
A news profile of him on the website of the Harvard School of Education, where he received a doctorate in 2017, said that Hay grew up in Antigo, Wisconsin, a town of 8,000 people.
“As a leader, it’s about how you interact in the world and the world with you,” he said in the piece.
UPDATE: The story has been updated with information and a press release from the Neenah Police Department.
