《坏教育》观后感摘抄
《坏教育》是一部由科瑞·芬莱执导，休·杰克曼 / 艾莉森·珍妮 / 杰拉尔丁·维斯瓦纳坦主演的一部剧情 / 喜剧类型的电影，特精心从网络上整理的一些观众的观后感，希望对大家能有帮助。
●7/10
●无惊无喜，有些地方还蛮逗趣的。狼叔也开始演gay了，最近几年的他真的是一直在尝试，真是怪辛苦的。
●漫威下岗职工再就业系列第二弹，比昨晚看得锤哥那部好多了，无论是人物塑造还是剧情深度上来看。当然了，两个本就不是一样的类型，可比性不大，只是想说，如何洗去大家对演员超英形象的标签，眼界和题材真的很重要。这个导演在视听上的处理也蛮有想法的，上一部就不差，拍起这种没太多野心的小片子还蛮好看的。
●TIFF19 9.14 三点五星吧
●剪辑节奏挺出彩的，除此之外我也没啥可夸了。因为导演的颜真的太是我的type了再加半星，一看就是不怎么穿西服的人偏偏讲话又带了绅士。
●狼叔的表演太棒了，完全看不出他之前角色的感觉，他很完美的表现了一个精致老男人。从一个贪污案开始，挖掘的更多是其中盘根错节的人际关系，到底什么教育是成功的，这部片并没有给出一个答案，能点拨出一个好记者和无数个优秀学生的贪污犯，获得不应该是仅仅是骂声。
●剧情本身其实还挺温吞的，因为是真实事件改编，所以成片有一种纪录片的质感在。但是还是要为狼叔突破自身演技壁垒敢于尝试的精神加一星，只不过这同性片段也太浅尝辄止了……
●休叔大概是真的厌倦了演/当好人，演了这么一个内心扭曲的角色，一次要把坏事做尽，可惜用力过猛。当然片子不烂，但也不算出色。整部片子看下来，能推测出它想达到的目标，但很可惜每个方面都差一口气。
●人物的虚伪和drama是典型的我不喜欢的有些美国人的性格特色，片子的表现手法也感觉有点老套无趣，不太喜欢这个片子。6.4/10
●3.5/5. 不能说有多好，但有种playfulness很好。
看完了休·杰克曼主演的这部根据真实事件改编的传记电影:《坏教育》，还可以，总是演好人的休·杰克曼演了一个斯文败类，衣冠禽兽，电影剧情整体节奏比较平淡，狼叔的演技很稳，完全演出了这个油腻深柜大叔的精致贪婪和落寞孤独！给五星，多一星给休叔！ 教师这个群体真的是蛮惨的，拿着卖白菜的钱，操着卖白粉的心，这一辈子的生活都可以望到头，循环往复，平淡无奇，也总会有人在生存法则和物欲诱惑面前迷失自我，贪婪迷茫，做着违背良心和道德的事情，其实他们也没有错，毕竟情怀是一回事儿，却不能当饭吃，谁都想过更好的生活，做更高的自己，但是资源占有的不平等，阶级出身的不平等，注定了这个世界上从来就没有公平可言，可恨之人有时候必有可怜之处，这操蛋的世界，这操蛋的生活！ 影片讲述了在教育界享负盛名的法兰克塔松是个对教育充满热忱、魅力十足的学区负责人，在他和同事潘葛拉肯的带领之下，纽约罗斯林学区升学率在全美排名第四，他们的目标是成为全美第一的顶尖学区。飙升的大学录取率带动了房价与社区发展，法兰克的贡献也声名远播。直到某天，罗斯林高中的学生瑞秋在撰写学校建案的校刊报导时，无意间发现了校内帐目出现各种错误，在她的调查下慢慢揭开了法兰克「为人师婊」的真面目，也让长达逾十年、攸关数百万美元的美国史上最大校园弊案浮上檯面…
《坏教育》观后感(二)：伪影评
刚看完，趁我还没忘就写下来。因为以前好多看过的电影已经忘记当时看完是怎么想的了。
OK 这电影狼叔主演 ，太久没见狼叔一开始都没认出来，满脑子想的都是这个这个人好像和柯南秀的柯南一起用蹩脚中文唱过歌，后来才想起来。（害，这电影院啥时候能开）
除了狼叔还是有挺多其他熟悉的配角，像有两位是《女子监狱》里的，不知道叫啥名，但是和老朋友一样，见到还是挺开心。
演技方面没什么问题，大家表现的都很到位。剧情也比较简单易懂，就是讲一个学校高层挪用公款的这个事情，看电影标题也大概也能猜到。但也就是名字太直观了，观众都能猜到剧情走向肯定会因为某件事情的泄露开始反转。所以在明牌的情况下一开始铺垫的一派祥和就显得有些过于用力。
根据真实丑闻事件改编的电影我还是挺爱看，也看的挺多。但这部电影对高层人员贪污的剖析还是比较多层次的，没有单单从主角的角度出发，讲述整个贪污的过程。而是放到一个社会问题的层面，去探讨会出现这种结果的原因。
上层监管不足。片中首先被发现贪污的是狼叔的同事潘，潘拿着学校的钱各种度假买房买礼物，然后晚上加班删收据，甚至肆意到让傻儿子去拿公卡消费。即使是这么不小心的操作下，在事情泄露的前八年，上面来查账楞是啥也没发现。最后狼叔自己也坦露第一次挪用公款是因为吃饭不小心刷错了公卡，想着第二天还上但发现谁也没注意。几百万不是一天挪用掉的，所以可以说监管的不足是导致贪污持续进行且数额慢慢变大的首要原因。
上下利益勾结。能贪污的人必然有些权势，如果你想揭发他们也会涉及到自己的权益。比如校刊的编辑，狼叔正在给他期望的大学写推介信。再比如在学校周围炒学区房的董事。这些人就算有揭发的机会，可是否有以牺牲自己的利益为代价的勇气呢。
同事心照不宣。片中揭发这一切的学生的父亲表示是知道上层贪污这个事情的，但顾虑到关系以及这些人还有自己的家庭，也就没有去做什么。学校的会计盲目相信潘说没有发票这些说辞。大家每天都一起工作，不可能什么也没有察觉。正如最后新闻报道里采访的那个同事所说，没有人会在一切都顺顺利利的情况下去找茬，都不想去打破眼前的平静。
家长只关心结果。影片一开始就是学校排名上升到第四的庆祝会，学校次年也发起了建造天空桥的计划，这一切美好结果的背后是什么没有人会去在乎，家长只想看到自己孩子能被什么大学所录取。我一开始也在思考，难道这种如片中所说的功过相抵的模式不好吗，happyending它不香嘛。后来突然想到杨永信，经过他”治疗“的孩子不也从叛逆少年变得乖乖听话了吗，有些家长甚至在知道治疗方式后仍表示支持。那这种看似美好的结果使我们应该推崇的吗？不，绝不是。
总的来说电影质量还不错，推荐给会关注社会问题的人看。
不行我写的太烂了，下次加油，byebye。
《坏教育》观后感(三)：《坏教育》：真正的人生如戏
#坏教育# #Bad Education# (A-) 这部就是典型的探讨“如果一个人的成就很高，是否可以准许他有道德瑕疵？”的电影。但同时又是一部关于信任危机的电影，虚构的幻象太过完美，当被打破时，人们甚至不愿意相信现实。
#Hugh Jackman# 出演的私立学校校长Frank是一个非常有魅力又有成就的人，电影前半部分，他基本上是人家人爱的风光人物。但随着一个学校的报社记者对学校支出的调查，及他手下一个员工受贿被揭发，Frank及手下长久以来挪用公款的事终于被揭露。甚至，随着事件的发酵，我们才发现这个人的很多信息都是谎言。
只是在故事展示他的事业因此受损的过程中，我们依然看到他是如何利用自己的成就，魅力，权力去试图掩饰一切。而且最奇妙的是，他看起来一点也不紧张或抓狂，仿佛依然是那个胜券在握的胜者，又或者，因为撒谎太久，他自己也分不清楚哪个是现实，宁愿继续生活谎言中。
休叔不是第一次出演这类有着魅力但却有缺点的人，而且被证明他很适合此类角色，让人看到他，会立刻被他的魅力所折服，就算后面出现了道德瑕疵，也根本恨不起来。比如《The Front Runner》里的总统竞选人，或《The Greatest Showman》里的马戏团经理。本片中的校长更具迷惑性一些，基本上在影片出现转折之前，完全没办法让人相信他的本质居然与看上去的如此不同。特别是他在学生、家长面前，可以说从未露出马脚。觉得休叔日后继续这条路线可以演出更多有丑闻的政客或领导人。
虽然这个故事根据真实事件改编，但不少细节依然令人很吃惊。如此多大笔支出几乎多年来没人查过，地址和电话很多都是假的，这些教育工作者过着如此奢华的生活也没人质疑。甚至休叔的角色一直说自己有个死去的妻子，甚至都没人怀疑。如果不是自己人意外“泄露”，一切可能还会被瞒很久。所有Frank认识的人都认为对他很了解，结果，却是没有一个人知道关于他的真相。真的是人生如戏，而他自己在戏中活得太久，可能都忘记了自己的真实身份，更别提其他人了。
虽然看似拍得平凡、低调，却是很神奇的一个故事，值得一看。 如不是去年的影帝竞争太激烈，原本Hugh Jackman的表演是值得更多嘉奖的。
《坏教育》观后感(四)：【刚看完！有感】校园版《聚焦》，贪婪帝国沦亡录
学校是社会的缩影，相信许多人对这段话不陌生。但科瑞芬利 (Cory Finley) 执导的黑色喜剧《坏教育》(Bad Education) 让这句名言的含意更耐人寻味。《坏教育》改编自真实的杏坛丑闻，叙述纽约罗斯林 (Roslyn) 高中的正副教育总监盗用公款一千一百万美金，最后锒铛入狱的事件。从片子一开始，科瑞就选择用政治电影的宏观气势及格局，描绘法兰克塔松 (Frank Tassone) 这位犯罪核心人物的独特魅力。
校园版《聚焦》 揭露教育界黑暗面
我们看到塔松站在讲台，宛如一国元首接受师生的拥戴喝采。罗斯林像是他治理的小国家，窗明几净的行政办公室是内阁部会，而精明干练的副总监潘蜜拉 (Pamela Gluckin) 则是他倚重的首相。八面玲珑的塔松深知，只要将学校的升学率打理的服服贴贴，董事会自然不会干涉他的行事作风。
这份默契使他得心应手的打造完美的教育王国，直到完美的系统出现小破口，破口的扩大引发分裂与猜忌。在塔松的王国灰飞烟灭前，这部片早已从校园弊案变成一部政治惊悚片，而揭发真相的校园记者与塔松之间的对立，也让本片像是校园版的《聚焦》(Spotlight)。
超清支援，公众号“影漫博士”已收录知名记者罗伯特科尔克 (Robert Kolker) 曾在追踪塔松案的报导《坏总监》(The Bad Superintendent) 写道，
「如果你想给人当免费的出气筒，不妨试试罗斯林的行政职缺。」
这句话多少见证了塔松收买人心的高明手腕。取材自科尔克文章的《坏教育》让我们窥见塔松追求完美的执著与狂热。他不但满足了师生与家长的虚荣心，也把自己的外表与生活修整的光鲜亮丽。但在和善开朗的笑容之下，却潜藏极为压抑的人格。
他隐藏对家长的不满、对衰老的恐惧、对同性的情欲，以及对物质的欲望。只有潘蜜拉理解他的压抑，也适时地充当他的情绪避风港。一场两人交换午餐的对手戏，巧妙的利用塔松无法克制的食欲，暗示他的表里不一，及摇摇欲坠的操守。
相较于戒慎恐惧的塔松，作风高调的潘蜜拉反而像诱人犯罪的佞臣。此后，当他的信誉与权威，因为潘蜜拉的非法行为而岌岌可危时，我们并不怀疑他对此事的后知后觉，而他挥泪斩马谡的果断决定，也似乎凸显他的刚正不阿。
但就像塔松偷天换日的敛财手法一样，这只是转移观众注意力的诡计。在塔松的真面目曝光前，编导早已悄悄地透过这场苦肉计演示他的虚伪。休杰克曼演活了塔松在大祸临头时展现的沉着与自制，当塔松说服大家压下贪污事件时，休杰克曼也以柔中带刚的情绪感染力，说服观众相信他的清白，并无视他逼迫潘蜜拉辞职，看似为了保全学校的名誉，实为切割不利证据的自保手段。
《坏教育》其实对塔松与潘蜜拉的犯罪过程着墨甚少，大多数的败行劣迹，都是透过校刊记者瑞秋（真实人名为 Rebekah Rombom）的调查才略知一二。塔松与潘蜜拉只能共享乐，无法共患难的诡谲关系，才是故事的真正主题。
一窥塔松内心的空虚与孤独
无论在公领域或私生活，塔松总是将每个人当作棋子，好整以暇地摆在未来的美好蓝图上，但最后所有的棋子都背叛了他，就连潘蜜拉也不例外。根据科尔克的说法，在事件见报前，以塔松为核心的共犯结构与利益网络已经树倒猢狲散。瑞秋的介入只是加速这场棋局的溃败，当警方登门拜访时，塔松早就是等待退位的跛脚国王。
一夜之间荣华成空的巨大失落感，其痛苦非外人所能想像。艾莉森珍妮与休杰克曼则分别以丝丝入扣的演技，诠释了两种形式的愤怒。艾莉森揣摩潘蜜拉从意气风发到丧家之犬的情绪落差，而她在家人的扶持下走过低潮，到最后坦然接受并认罪的过程，反而意外地激发观众的同理心。
另一方面，休杰克曼贯彻了塔松的压抑性格，将怒火闷烧至电影的最后一秒，才以半失控的方式小心谨慎地爆发。但这个难得的真性情表现，却得不到旁人的肯定或认同。前后两者一相比，不禁令人感受到强烈的空虚及孤独。
休杰克曼在《坏教育》里，展现了比《致命魔术》与《极乐世界》层次更丰富，且情感更真诚的反派演出。不过戏外的塔松始终不认为自己渎职，甚至辩称对一份满足家长蛮横要求的苦差事来说，这笔中饱私囊的钜款是合理的补偿。罗斯林出身的编剧麦克马克斯基 (Mike Makowsky) 也认为塔松的建树确实是不可抹灭的事实。面对这位形象复杂的争议性人物，麦克马克斯基选择不批判他的功过是非，转而剥开他一层又一层的精心伪装，暴露他罕为人知的深沉孤独。
超清支援，公众号“影漫博士”已收录片中的塔松与每个人保持距离。他令所有人印象深刻，却鲜少有人能走入他的生活圈，更不用说有机会分辨他的谎言与真实人生。他以笑容掩饰冷淡、礼貌掩饰不屑，就连他恐吓瑞秋停止追查时，看起来仍像是一位循循善诱的严师。失去推心置腹的潘蜜拉后，塔松变的更寂寞疏离，他对人事物的掌控也随之分崩离析。当事件东窗事发，众人才发现自己对真正的塔松一无所知。荒谬的是，这种无知让他们更心安理得的与他撇清关系，将他当作除之而后快的过街老鼠。
《坏教育》以明快的节奏，与时而涌现的辛辣喜感，讲述了一个遗世孤独且贪婪成性的完美帝国，在一夜之间化为乌有的单纯故事。罗斯林的师生称呼塔松为「Pecksniff」（狄更斯小说里的恶人，意指剥削他人的伪君子），而他的确将人生变成一本虚构的小说。有读者视塔松为监守自盗的骗子，也有读者认为他是孤芳自赏的教育奇才。但无论解读的角度为何，恐怕连作者都不会知道真正的答案。
《坏教育》观后感(五)：电影原型:罗斯林公立学校腐败丑闻
真实故事是有2名15岁的学生记者让案件曝光的，「大家都知道2004年《纽约时报》报导了这起诈骗案，调查后才发现，第一手报导竟是法兰克的学生，仅仅用一则校刊就引爆全美关注。」
粘下《纽约时报》报道,
原文过长能力有限只能机翻,存在一些问题.有能力的可啃生肉报道.
兰克·塔松在他的漫长而迷人的职业生涯中第一次遇到麻烦。这位博学、广受推崇的罗斯林、长岛学区（北岸公立学校系统）的校长，根据考试成绩，在2002年秋季遭遇了相当尴尬、可能令人尴尬的局面。他的主管助理被查出偷了25万美元，写学校支票来支付她的信用卡账单，并浮躁地在家得宝几个城镇外购买。校板成员坐在小区的会议室里，等待塔松告诉他们该做什么。
如果你想得到一份工作，你得到一切责备，没有功劳，没有真正的回报，试着为罗斯林学校董事会竞选。北岸的每个人都有一个天才的孩子，或者需要额外关注，或者有一个需要某种感觉的指导顾问。在黑暗的时刻，你反对你希望服务的社区，只有主管——亲——来帮助你做出艰难的决定。在这个例子中，这位亲者是Tassone，他总是穿着一位CEO刚按下的衣橱，拥有文学教授的学术血统和随和的权威。那天晚上，塔松为同情和宽大作出了动人、雄辩的论点。他说，罪犯帕姆·格鲁金含泪供认。她的婚姻破裂了，她病了，她绝望了。如果董事会不提出指控，她同意悄悄地辞职，放弃她的行政执照，并马上把钱还回去。
起初不是每个人都去争取的。一些董事会成员想知道，他们有没有道德义务把书扔给她。但塔松警告说，如果这种事情没有谨慎处理，可能需要数年时间才能消失。格鲁金是一名终身公务员，收入为16万美元。如果董事会提出指控，她将继续赚取这笔钱多年，因为案件悄悄地通过法院。但是，如果她自己离开，罗斯林可以节省这笔钱，并找回失去的东西。没有伤害，没有犯规。
其他人想知道，让她走是否合法。因此，塔松也想到了这一点，这让我们松了一口气。他曾请一名刑事律师，前拿骚县检察官来开会，而律师告诉他们，作为法律，贪污的受害者不必提出指控。
由于董事会开始期待他，塔松用语言说出了他们所知道的，但不知道他们知道。罗斯林也许不会比大脖子、西耶塞特或杰里科更富有，但其学校被认为是最好的。罗斯林高中的文凭是长岛离哈佛的机票最近的一张;每年有四分之一的高中生进入高选择性的大学。他们是否希望摄影师在学校的场地上，或审计员嗅探区办公室？常春藤联盟的招生官员会以同样的方式看待罗斯林的学生吗？塔松说，房地产价格会发生什么？
他的信息很明确：上市不能出任何好事。很难想象选民们会重新选举学校董事会成员，他们让这样的事情发生在这样的地方。
他可能是对的但董事会不可能知道的是，塔松不仅保护帕姆·格鲁金。他也在保护自己。
看起来这位看似修道的单身汉，在拉斯维加斯与一位32岁的男性异国舞者一起拥有一栋房子时，与一名男子住在曼哈顿。
罗斯林和东山的村庄坐落在莱维敦风格的树木繁茂的飞地中，与小地段的紧凑豪宅混在一起，组成一个开明的社区，拥有前瞻性的公立学校——这是长岛第一个在卫生室的罐子里提供免费避孕套的社区，是该州第一个对高中毕业社区服务要求的村庄之一。至少有一名学生在罗斯林高中停车场停着一辆悍马，大厅里还有一台平板电视。家长们非常坚决地想写孩子的成绩单，以至于高中现在给任何想要他们的学生提供荣誉课程。今年4月，《华尔街日报》称罗斯林高中是美国第六好公立高中，仅次于斯图维森特和亨特。
然后，在五月，屋顶塌陷了。据拿骚县检察官称，弗兰克·塔松在罗斯林度过了十二年，悄悄地经营着一个最大胆的骗局，以折磨公立学校系统。国库几乎以各种可以想象的方式被掠夺——费用账户填充、供应商投标违规、支票记录捏造，甚至创建虚假业务。据称，塔松曾两次乘坐协和式飞机前往伦敦，一次为2万美元，另一次为3万美元，包括每晚1800美元的套房，还有六次与朋友一起前往拉斯维加斯的短途旅行，包括罗斯林·高（Roslyn High）的热门校长杰伊·斯托勒（Jay Stoller），该区甚至赌了塔松的一些赌钱。D.A.说，到7月6日被捕时，塔松已经存了足够的钱，以姐妹的名义将30万美元转入银行账户。
塔松和格鲁金都因一级盗窃罪被捕，法庭在等待起诉时冻结了他们的资产。但罗斯林能否找回失去的东西是值得怀疑的。据报道，有800万美元失踪，地方检察官的审计人员尚未完成计票工作。在一波其他辞职之后，D.A.说更多的逮捕行动可能即将进行。
罗斯林的父母和老师同样令人惊讶的是，塔松过着双重生活。这位看似修道的单身汉，在办公室的架子上放着一张旧婚纱照，并满怀希望地谈到他嫁给的死于癌症的年轻女子，他似乎与一名男子住在曼哈顿，同时在拉斯维加斯拥有一座32岁的男性异国舞者。现在，在新学年开始时，家长们不禁要问，这个赢得信任、令学校羡慕长岛的人，如果有什么，一个12年，800万美元的骗局怎么可能在他们眼皮底下消失呢？也许最麻烦的是：弗兰克·塔松欺骗了罗斯林，还是出于给孩子最好的欲望，罗斯林是否允许自己被弗兰克·塔松欺骗？
担任一所富裕学校系统的负责人有点像阿兰·杜卡斯（AlainDucasse）的校长。你处于职业的巅峰，但最终，你还是个侍者。罗斯林负责课程和教学的助理主管查理·皮蒙特说："在这里工作是为了客户满意度。"人们对孩子的担忧在很小的时候就很严重。这就像生意一样。他们让他们的孩子走上一条道路——如果你在一个有天赋的课程，如果你得到老师每个人都爱，如果你得到A.P.课程。这是一个站不住脚的工作。
然而，塔松让它看起来很容易。"弗兰克真的是大师，"皮蒙特说。"我的意思是，这家伙被爱。他走在水面上。
从他到达的那一刻起，塔松就明白，在像罗斯林这样的地方，家长们希望学校不仅仅是教育的管理者——他们还必须对社区进行闪闪发光的反思。他自己的资历当然是一流的。塔松在布朗克斯佩勒姆湾区的一间排屋长大，后来从韦斯特切斯特的Iona学院获得学士学位，然后获得两个硕士学位——教育管理、语言和文学——以及师范学院教育管理博士学位，在那里他撰写了关于狄更斯的论文。1992年，他在韦斯特切斯特和莱维特敦担任管理员，之后降落在罗斯林。
塔松开始的每个新节目都充满了罗斯林的自豪感——或者，也许是虚荣心。他把外语课引入小学，给高中提供"价值观教育"课程，包括社区服务要求。他发起讨论小组，每年举办社区晚宴，在每年对学校预算进行投票之前，他精明地安排了一次社区晚宴，从而拥抱了老年人。学校员工学会了期待生日贺卡上签名"塔松博士"，并在周年纪念日祝贺礼品篮。他面对面地解除了潜在的异议人士的武装，开会时——仍然像猫头鹰一样坐在办公室的会议桌旁，双手折叠在他的腿上，头点头。
有一次，当四名小学教师抱怨校长时，塔松都和校长交谈，给四位老师送了一件T恤衫。一件衬衫上写着2TEACH + 2TOUCH生活 = 4EVER。"在那之后，他在我的眼里不能做太多错事，"一位老师说。"我喜欢，他是如此平易近人。在他到达几年后，扶轮社称他为年度人物。
塔松透露他的私生活有多少是有限度的。他告诉同事最多的是他已经短暂结婚了。"弗兰克说他的妻子乔安妮在很小的时候就去世了，"教师工会主席埃莉诺·罗素说。"她有某种疾病。他在办公室里拍了一张婚纱照。但从外表看，他的生活方式似乎希望一个警长生活。他的梅赛德斯就是一个例子。在地区午餐会上为其他主管提供龙虾尾巴是另一回事。另一位长岛学校校长说："你不会找到像弗兰克那样生活的很多校长，因为我们害怕。"你不想显得高薪。他过着相反的生活。他的行为就好像他有权得到它——汽车、衣服、钱。
在工作午餐期间，Tassone将继续讨论学区应该如何像任何拥有8000万美元预算的私营公司一样行事。"他认为管理者的薪水应该尽可能高，"皮耶蒙特说。"这些工作非常微妙，需要教育。他会说，'看看IBM的首席执行官，他们赚了大钱，我们赚了20万美元。"
如果说塔松是罗斯林家族的骄傲父亲，那么帕姆·格鲁金就是这个爱好娱乐的姑姑。活泼和勤劳，两个孩子的母亲喜欢取笑自己和如何努力。如果董事会给她分配了一项任务，一位董事会成员说，"她曾经开玩笑说，'你们都回家了，和你的孩子呆在一起;我会工作，直到早上六点，在这一个。她从中产阶级贝尔莫尔上下班，但生活很像一个典型的罗斯林工作妈妈，在韦斯特汉普顿海滩和佛罗里达州有家，还有一辆捷豹，车牌上写着DUNENUTN。
格鲁金成为塔松在办公室最亲密的知己之一。在塔松担任司库之前两年，她来到了塔松担任司库，塔松提拔了她，直到她找到该区最赚钱的工作，即主管业务助理。一位前董事会成员表示："他们彼此相处得很自在，好玩，快乐。"他开玩笑说，她怎么有很多名字，因为她结过很多次婚，还有她的狗，他说狗就像她的孩子。员工午餐后，格鲁金会留下来和塔松一起到基布茨，有时一个多小时。
埃莉诺·罗素说："帕姆和他一起去了任何地方。"她将参加个别学校的会议，以及地区性的委员会会议，如特殊教育或招生委员会。他依靠帕姆做每一件事。他会说，'哦，帕姆会解决的。她分发汽油信用卡，批准前往其他城市参加会议，并为一些董事会成员提供电脑和手机。一些员工甚至得到了吉普车。
一位罗斯林的父母称塔松为"佩克尼米尼亚人"。这个名字指的是狄更斯的角色，他利用别人的弱点，在仁慈的展示背后自私和腐败。
有人说，塔松对数字不好——语言就是他的前所。如果有时格鲁金也显得草率，塔松会保护她。罗素回忆道："有一次，她给了我一张福利基金中太多钱的支票，她告诉我保留它。"我说，'你在开玩笑吗？她说，'有什么大不了的？我们将在几个月内欠你钱，这将覆盖它。我拿了支票给弗兰克，他试图尽量减少她的错误，说，'这并不重要。"
我纯粹是运气，让塔松在媒体之前看到这个匿名信。这封信在二月份寄给了一位当地政客的"谁"，但一份副本却寄错了地址。由于信封被伪装成从学区的样子，邮局直接把它送到塔松的办公室。
我们认为，弗兰克·塔松博士参与了这起贪污丑闻，以便在格鲁金女士的帮助下支持他奢侈的生活方式。他提交了...他的个人信用卡对账单，个人度假和旅行的账单，以及各种家庭账单...并把它们包括在掩盖。
但在任何人开始指责塔松之前，他发动了先发制人的防守。"他打电话给我，他说，'有这封信，没有一个是真的，"皮蒙特回忆道。大楼里的秘书、工会领袖、保管人、学校管理人员、PTA——都被传唤了，他们第一手听到他是多么震惊，因为业务经理对他们做了这些——对我们，对罗斯林社区。社区相信他有些人甚至称赞他如此坦率。虽然花了太多时间试图找出作者是谁，但Tassone毫不费力地找到了诋毁信本身的方法：该区在信封上的回信地址拼写错误;塔松的名字也是
当D.A.在2月份展开调查时，塔松建议把两年前发现失踪的25万美元丢失的会计安德鲁·米勒带回，用细牙梳子翻阅格鲁金任期的账簿。这一次，由于信中的线索，Miller发现了比他2002年看到的更专业的贪污方式——例如，假公司，而不仅仅是可疑的支票。很快，米勒就把丢失的钱定在100万美元。《新闻日报》抓住它的风，报道了它——社区介入，要求它一磅肉。去年春天，曾经沉睡的学校董事会会议变得像以色列议会听证会一样风风雨雨，由两年前董事会担心的电视工作人员华丽地点燃。
尽管如此，罗斯林愤怒的目标不是塔松;但是，罗斯林的愤怒不是塔松。是学校董事会早在2002年，保护格鲁金的决定——让她辞职，而不是提出指控——被视为串通、阴谋，甚至浮士德。塔松则被罗斯利尼人视为勇敢地站出来为董事会辩护，他告诉每一个愿意听他有多沮丧的人，格鲁金是多么的背叛。"我们称它为'帕姆·格鲁金的诱惑'，"一位前董事会成员说。
州主计长艾伦·赫维西发誓要审计罗斯林的书。不久之后，社区团结在塔松的背后。《华尔街日报》将罗斯林高中命名为全美最好的公立高中之一的文章于4月2日出版，在下次董事会会议上，家长们站出来承诺支持他们的校长。在当地报纸的专栏中，塔松试图解释为什么他们让格鲁金辞职而不提出起诉，实际上把责任推给向董事会提供建议的会计师和律师。"如果我们当时知道我们现在所知道的一切，"他写道，"我们肯定会采取不同的行动。
只有一个问题：会计师和律师不会接受失败。在4月份的董事会会议上，2002年曾向董事会提供建议的律师汤姆·赫森坚称，他只告诉董事会什么是合法的，而不是合乎道德的。安德鲁·米勒也为自己辩护，指出纽约州学区的审计人员不应该寻找彻头彻尾的欺诈，只是违规行为。董事会主席比尔·科斯蒂根在寻找答案时，问塔松，他首先在哪里找到了汤姆·赫森。塔松说，他是由卡罗尔·霍夫曼（CarolHoffman）转介的，他是该区的普通律师。但当科斯蒂根打电话给霍夫曼时，她非常愤怒，辩称赫森是塔松带来的。当科斯蒂根面对塔松时，塔松改变了他的故事，说赫森是别人推荐的。
在那之前，罗斯林的大多数人似乎仍然相信塔松对格鲁金一无所知。但科斯蒂根不禁要问：塔松在2002年这次会议之前，是否去购物，寻求有利的法律意见？整个格鲁金辞职是由主管分阶段管理的吗？从那时起，科斯蒂根决定不再单独与塔松见面。
4月下旬，塔松的办公室被围困。格鲁金的唱片很快就变成了虚构的。《新闻日报》几乎每天都在提交公开信息请求，向一些公司公开了数十万美元的支票记录，这些公司一旦联系过，就表示他们没有收到任何接近该金额的支票记录。慢慢地，除了科斯蒂根之外，其他人开始怀疑塔松怎么会不知道这件事。到那时，塔松就像一只幽灵，即使在他努力出现身体上的时候，他也几乎没有精神。他的手机记录显示，他花了三月和四月的大部分时间飞往拉斯维加斯，波多黎各，然后加州，佛罗里达州和拉斯维加斯两次。起初，他的员工耸耸肩，开玩笑说，他每次不得不决定叫雪天时，他都设法出城了。现在，他们想知道他是否躲过麻烦。
5月12日，比尔·科斯蒂根接到学区律师的电话，告诉他尽快给安德鲁·米勒打电话。
米勒说："我们可能发现了100多万美元。"我认为它涉及到弗兰克。
同一位将"基于价值观"的教育引入学校系统的主管也向学区收取了他的上东区租金、奔驰车、甚至珠宝和皮肤护理费用。米勒说，他发现塔松用最可笑的购物来填充他的开支账户——比如33，141美元的干洗，总是挂在他的办公室会议桌上。
第二天，当塔松会见科斯蒂根和董事会成员卡伦·博德纳时，科斯蒂根非常生气，建议塔松考虑辞职。但塔松把他甩了。
quot;看看我的合同，"他们回忆起塔松说。它涵盖所有"合理费用"。"
quot;也许我们应该买你的衣服，太？科斯蒂根问。
quot;嗯，这是一个意见的问题，"塔松说。
quot;如果D.A.起诉你吗？科斯蒂根问。
quot;这永远不会发生，"塔松说。
Tason 最后一次在罗斯林公开露面，结果在 5 月 28 日，阵亡将士纪念日周末前的星期五，举行了 PTA 会议。丢失的金额刚刚升级到500万美元，塔松和董事会决定解雇会计安德鲁·米勒。该区的律师也被放走了。
quot;我们是你们的支持者，"费思·鲁索说，他是港山小学两个男孩的母亲。"为什么我们必须从别人那里听到这个？
看到塔索内指着她，他大吃一惊，尖叫着："你会听我的！你会听我的！他不会让她完成，"另一位母亲德尼克斯·德雷克斯勒说。"他从治疗师到狂躁。
鲁索的心脏沉沦了。她意识到她一生中惹恼了一个有权势的人。"我担心我的孩子会成为教师，"她说。
为了她，另一位PTA成员艾米·卡茨来帮助她。"你一直改变你的故事，"她对塔松说。
另一位母亲丽莎·莱文开始询问该区对格鲁金的新诉讼。
quot;我不知道，"塔松说，举起双手。"律师事务所知道。
莱文问道："你刚才解雇的律师事务所是同一家吗？
蒸汽似乎正在从塔松的耳朵里逃出来。最后他爆炸了
quot;你们这里有多少女士是律师？
果然，鲁索、卡茨和莱文都是律师。房间里的其他妈妈也是这样。
安东尼·安农齐亚托上任仅几个小时就将丑闻的肉与弗兰克·塔松联系起来。6月1日，罗斯林新任主管助理主管——帕姆·格鲁金期待已久的接班人——开始了他的一天，他审视了一家名为WordPower的公司，该公司在过去十几年中从罗斯林那里收取了80万美元，主要用于文字处理。令他烦恼的是，公司不是位于罗斯林，而是位于曼哈顿，特别是塔松位于东88街160号的家庭地址。Anunziato只用了几个按键，就发现WordPower首席执行官史蒂夫·西内雷利（Steve Signorelli）的号码不仅与塔松的地址有关，还连接到了他的公寓。
不久，安农齐亚托在劳德代尔堡通过电话与塔松进行了交谈。
quot;弗兰克，"安农齐亚托说。"这些人住在你的公寓里。
quot;嗯，他们住在我的大楼里，"塔松说。安农齐亚托不敢相信他坚持那个故事。但随后塔松改变了战术。
塔松说："我们必须弄清楚，我们将如何旋转它。
quot;我不确定你能，"安农齐亚托说。
整件事让安农齐亚托想起了电影《没有出路》和凯文·科斯特纳。"他知道，他会被抓住。
比尔·科斯蒂根召集了6月2日的紧急会议。塔松抓住了它的风，从佛罗里达叫科斯蒂根。
quot;没有主管，董事会不会开会，"塔松冷静地说。
quot;你告诉我你今天会回家，"科斯蒂根说。
quot;我会看看我能做什么，"塔松说。
6月4日，他回家的第二天，塔松被董事会解除了职务。
罗斯林丑闻的侵吞或挪用了800万美元，其技术含量极低。检察官说，诀窍在于支票写作。例如，当Gluckin决定用区款向富国银行支付抵押贷款时，她只是在支票账本上给"富国银行"加上了名号，她知道该区使用了一家名为富国银行的保安公司。在其他情况下，她缩写："M&T"可能是制造商和贸易商信托公司，Gluckin在贝尔莫尔的海滨住宅的抵押持有人，其支付记录为56，881.96美元。
这也帮助塔松似乎储备了该地区的朋友。有一位地区办事员黛布拉·里加诺（Debra Rigano）为管理员安排了前往拉斯维加斯、新奥尔良、波士顿和伦敦的旅行，并兼职了一家旅行社，为她的预订提供了佣金。（事实证明，塔松在旅途中经常的同伴是他明显的公寓伴侣，WordPower首席执行官史蒂夫·西内雷利。里加诺的姑姑恰好是帕姆·格鲁金，甚至在2002年格鲁金辞职后，里加诺仍然坚持了下来。塔松辞职的同一天，她终于被放了，因为发现塔松为她收取了1，081美元的一小时加班费。
还有汤姆·加林斯基，建筑和地面主管，他曾经与格鲁金在同一地区工作，和许多前往拉斯维加斯的旅途中，他都自费与塔松一起飞行。在被罗斯林雇用之前，加林斯基曾为一家承包商工作，他后来建议重做罗斯林高中漏水的屋顶。当泄漏持续，罗斯林雇用他们做一次，一次又一次。
还有一位人事顾问阿尔·拉泽蒂，塔松做了一份内部审计员——对每一张账单加盖橡皮图章，并检查塔松和格鲁金写的。即使在董事会拒绝续约之后，塔松仍把他留在工资单上。最后，拉扎蒂有一个妹妹，弗兰·佩尔图西，塔松做了一个顾问，在9年内赚了30万美元。佩尔图西恰巧是塔松的密友，他年轻时在莱维特敦担任警长。
谁在店里？审计人员安德鲁·米勒不应该与每个列出的支票接收者确认这笔钱被正确记录。没有一个学区有这种监督——赫维西现在正在处理这一问题。在过去五年中，审计人员只检查了长岛124个学区中的14个，尽管他们每年总共花费超过70亿美元。塔松和格鲁金，他们之间多年的经验，一定已经理解这一点。
丑闻曝光后，塔松私生活的细节被公之于众。据报道，今年4月，他与曾做过摩托车推销员、异国舞者杰森·多尔蒂（Jason Daugherty）一起关闭了拉斯维加斯郊区的一所房子。该区的一名职员菲利斯·赞皮诺（Phyllis Zampino）承认道尔蒂的名字是过去一年每周从该区寄来的联邦快递包裹塔松的接收者，因为Gluckin被迫退休。办公室里似乎没有人知道这些包裹里是什么。在多尔蒂和西内雷利之间，罗斯林在夏天有很多可以吃的。如果暗示塔松是同性恋，许多罗斯利人现在声称，他们一直怀疑;他们只是从来没有这么说。"这是一个非常社会先进的社区，非常自由，"Tassone的一位老员工说。"这就像它不会很酷，甚至把它提出来。多尔蒂和西诺雷利都没有评论他们的性生活，或者别的什么。
Hindsight已经挖出了对塔松的各种修正主义判断。有些人现在记得他是弹出草药活力丸，并在一个点，芬芬。他用56，645美元的学费支付了曼哈顿一位名叫史蒂文·拉姆的减肥医生的治疗费用，不过他告诉《新闻日》，他从口袋里掏钱支付了治疗费用。一位家长说："突然间，不是弗兰克穿着福特金牛座的裤子来到这里——是弗兰克，他的头发梳着背部，整容。家长和老师不能不注意到他耳朵后面长长的光疤痕。在他任职的几年后，他出现在父母见面会上，双眼周围都有小伤痕。他说他曾经打拳击，但罗斯林的人看到拳击时就知道有眼塞。
并不是说这一点在当时引起了人们的注意。"他赚了25万美元，"比尔·科斯蒂根说。"他是单身。他告诉我们他住在一栋稳定租金的大楼里。所以当他穿着布鲁克斯兄弟的西装出现时，那很有意义。他有500美元的汽车津贴你可以租一辆梅赛德斯。
邻里活动家JudiWinters在几乎每天都给罗斯林邻居的电子邮件爆炸中，将丑闻比作越南，她告诉我，她已经想出了描述塔松的完美方法："佩克尼森"。这个名字指的是佩克斯尼姆先生，一个利用他人弱点的狄更斯人物，在仁慈的展示背后自私和腐败。
quot;弗兰克是一个巨大的操纵者，"安德鲁·米勒说，"这大概就是为什么有些人认为他是一个伟大的警长。
虽然负责处理此案的助理地区检察官彼得·曼库索承认，塔松"不是真正签署地区支票的人"，但检察官坚持认为，塔松"是其中的核心"。他是从这些支票中获益的人。
被保释的格鲁金和塔松除了声称自己是清白之外，没有发表任何评论。塔松的律师埃德·詹克斯（EdJenks）严重依赖塔松合同中漏洞百出的条款来证明主管的奢侈行为是正当的。邻居们猜测，格鲁金可能会达成一项协议，牵连塔松，而塔松预计将把自己塑造成一个不幸的天真，被格鲁金的阴谋纠缠在一起。还有一些人认为格鲁金和塔松只是问题的一部分。帕特·希塞尔（Pat Schissel）是学校董事会的19年老手，他因为接受该区免费使用手机和电脑而在会上受到严厉批评（"塔松博士说'好吧'"，她哀伤地告诉我，这表明罗斯林是"佩顿广场的情况"。如果你拥有它们，你很难保持它们的价值。我想人们可以被卷入其中。弗兰克可能已经陷入其中。
罗斯林是罪魁祸首？当然，这不是城里最受欢迎的观点。查理·皮蒙特说："弗兰克非常仔细地处理着很多事情。"很难认为他是一个笨拙的管理员，被扫地出门。
开学时，丑闻仍未停止。有一个新的校长，一个新的校长，一个新的高中校长。比尔·科斯蒂根已经辞去总裁一票，但他拒绝离开董事会，他说没有人比他更受塔松的欺骗。当然，在提出这一主张时，他有很多陪伴。
quot;我的生活现在是第六感，"卡伦·博德纳说，他在6月被罢免了。即便是现在，她还是熬夜思考2002年那场命运攸关的会议后的一个晚上，在锡拉丘兹一家酒店的大厅里安慰塔松，董事会正在那里参加一个校板会议。
quot;他太心烦意乱了，"她说。"他需要发泄——'帕姆怎么能这么做呢？我说，'她一定是一个社会病态的人，因为它似乎是一种业余的挪用金钱的方式——这甚至不是聪明的。我们谈了好几个小时，他从我身上画出来了！后来我得知他在做同样的事情？
quot;也许他试图弄明白我们中是否有人怀疑他，"她接着说。"他是一个博士，他是一个狄更斯学者。他一定以为我们是北岸的富人，我们被宠坏了，我们什么都宠坏了。
尽管如此，她还是忍不住深情地想着那个她认为是导师的男人。尽管她知道任何事情，博德纳仍然相信——也许她需要相信——弗兰克·塔松是善良的。
博德纳说："去年夏天，我正经历着一次分离，他从欧洲打电话给我，看看我的表现如何。"他似乎有理由担心。我现在不能告诉你他不是但也许那个电话是他确保每个人都支持他。这些问题我永远不会有答案。
quot;这是音乐人，"我建议。
quot;是的，是的，"博德纳说。"这正是它是什么。
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原文:
Photo: Willie Anderson/NY Daily News Archive via Getty ImagesFor the first time in his long, charmed career, Frank Tassone had a problem. The erudite, widely admired superintendent of the Roslyn, Long Island, school district—the North Shore public-school system he had managed to make, based on test scores, one of the ten best in America—found himself confronted in the fall of 2002 with a rather awkward, potentially embarrassing situation. His assistant superintendent for business had been caught stealing $250,000, writing school checks to cover her credit-card bills and impetuously racking up mammoth purchases at a Home Depot several towns away. And the school-board members were sitting in the district’s conference room, waiting for Tassone to tell them what to do.
If you want a job where you get blame for everything, credit for nothing, and no real reward, try running for the Roslyn school board. Everyone on the North Shore has a child who is a genius, or demands extra attention, or has a guidance counselor who needs some sense talked into him. In darker moments, it’s you against the community you hoped to serve, with only the superintendent—the pro—to help you with the tough decisions. The pro, in this case, was Tassone, always dressed in the freshly pressed wardrobe of a CEO, with the academic pedigree and easygoing authority of a literature professor. That night, Tassone made a moving, eloquent argument for compassion and leniency. The culprit, Pam Gluckin, had tearfully confessed, he said. Her marriage was falling apart, she was ill, she’d been desperate. And if the board didn’t press charges, she’d agree to quietly resign, give up her administrator’s license, and give back the money right away.
ot everybody went for it at first. Some board members wondered if they had a moral obligation to throw the book at her. But Tassone warned that if this sort of thing wasn’t handled gingerly, it could take years to go away. Gluckin was a tenured civil-service worker who made $160,000. If the board pressed charges, she’d keep earning that money for years as the case crept through the courts. But if she left on her own, Roslyn could save that money and get back what it lost. No harm, no foul.
Others wondered if letting her go was even legal. So it was something of a relief that Tassone had thought of this, too. He had asked a criminal lawyer, a former Nassau County prosecutor, to come to the meeting—and that lawyer advised them that as a matter of law, victims of embezzlement didn’t have to press charges.
As the board had come to expect of him, Tassone was putting into words what they knew, but didn’t know they knew. Roslyn may be no wealthier than Great Neck or Syosset or Jericho, but its schools were seen as the best. A diploma from Roslyn High School is the closest you can get on Long Island to a ticket to Harvard; every year, a quarter of the seniors get into highly selective colleges. Did they want camera crews on school grounds, or auditors sniffing around the district office？ Would Ivy League admissions officers look at Roslyn students the same way？ What, Tassone said, would happen to property values？
His message was clear: No good could come from going public. Voters could hardly be expected to reelect school-board members who’d let something like that happen in a place like this.
And he was probably right. But what the board couldn’t have known was that Tassone was not just protecting Pam Gluckin. He was also protecting himself.
The seemingly monastic bachelor, it appears, was living with one man in Manhattan while owning a house in Las Vegas with a 32-year-old male exotic dancer.
Clustered in a wooded enclave of Levittown-style homes mingled with compact mansions on tiny lots, the villages of Roslyn and East Hills make up an enlightened community with forward-thinking public schools—the first on Long Island with free condoms in a jar in the health room, one of the first in the state with a community-service requirement for high-school graduation. At least one student has parked a Hummer in the Roslyn High School lot, and a flat-screen TV posts schedules in the halls. Parents are so determined to buff their kids’ tranｓｃｒｉｐｔs that the high school now offers honors classes to any student who wants them. In April, the Wall Street Journal called Roslyn High the sixth-best public high school in America, not far behind Stuyvesant and Hunter.
Then, in May, the roof fell in. According to Nassau County prosecutors, Frank Tassone had spent his twelve years in Roslyn quietly running one of the most audacious scams ever to afflict a public-school system. The coffers were plundered in practically every imaginable way—expense-account padding, vendor-bidding violations, check-record fabrications, even the creation of phony businesses. Tassone allegedly had the district pay for two trips to London on the Concorde, one for $20,000 and another for $30,000, including $1,800-a-night suites, and a half-dozen jaunts to Las Vegas with his friends—including Roslyn High’s popular principal, Jay Stoller—where the district even staked some of Tassone’s gambling money. The D.A. says that by the time he was arrested on July 6, Tassone had saved enough money to transfer $300,000 to bank accounts in his sisters’ names.
oth Tassone and Gluckin have been arrested for first-degree larceny, and the court has frozen their assets as they await indictment. But it’s doubtful Roslyn will ever get back what was lost. There’s a reported $8 million missing, and the district attorney’s auditors haven’t finished counting. After a wave of other resignations, the D.A. says more arrests may be on the way.
What’s just as surprising to the parents and teachers of Roslyn is that Tassone had been living something of a double life. The seemingly monastic bachelor who had an old wedding photo on a shelf in his office—and spoke wistfully of the young woman he married who died of cancer—turned out, it appears, to be living with one man in Manhattan while owning a house in Las Vegas with a 32-year-old male exotic dancer. Now, at the start of a new school year, parents are left wondering what, if anything, was real about the man who won their trust and made their schools the envy of Long Island. How could a twelve-year, $8 million scam go down right under their noses？ And perhaps most troubling: Did Frank Tassone deceive Roslyn, or, out of a desire to give its children the best, did Roslyn allow itself to be deceived by Frank Tassone？
eing the head of a wealthy school system is a little like being the headwaiter at Alain Ducasse. You’re at the top of your profession, but at the end of the day, you’re still a waiter. “Working here is about client satisfaction,” says Charlie Piemonte, Roslyn’s assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. “The concerns people have for their kids are serious at a very young age. It’s like a business. They put their kids on a path—if you’re in a gifted program, if you get the teacher everybody loves, if you get A.P. classes. It’s an untenable job.”
Tassone, however, made it look easy. “Frank was really the master,” Piemonte says. “I mean, this guy was loved. He walked on water.”
From the moment he arrived, Tassone understood that in a place like Roslyn, parents expected the schools to be more than just the stewards of education—they also had to be shimmering reflections of the community. His own credentials were certainly first-rate. Brought up in a rowhouse in the Pelham Bay section of the Bronx, Tassone went on to earn a B.A. from Iona College in Westchester and then two master’s degrees—in educational administration and languages and literature—and a doctorate in educational administration at Teachers’ College, where he wrote his dissertation on Dickens. He worked as an administrator in Westchester and Levittown before landing in Roslyn in 1992.
Every new program Tassone started played into Roslyn’s sense of pride—or, perhaps, vanity. He brought foreign-language classes into the elementary schools, and a “values education” curriculum to the high school, including the community-service requirement. He embraced senior citizens by starting discussion groups and hosting an annual community dinner-dance—scheduled, shrewdly, right before the annual vote on the school budget. School employees learned to look forward to birthday cards signed “Dr. Tassone,” and congratulatory gift baskets on anniversaries. And he disarmed potential dissenters face to face, meeting by meeting—sitting still as an owl at his office’s conference table, hands folded in his lap, head nodding.
Once, when four elementary-school teachers complained about their principal, Tassone both talked with the principal and sent the four teachers a T-shirt. One shirt read 2TEACH + 2TOUCH LIVES = 4EVER. “He couldn’t do too much wrong in my eyes after that,” one of the teachers says. “I liked that he was so approachable.” A few years after he arrived, the Rotary Club named him man of the year.
There were limits to how much Tassone would reveal about his private life. The most he’d tell colleagues was that he’d been briefly married. “Frank said his wife, Joanne, died at a very early age,” says Eleanor Russell, the teachers-union president. “She had some kind of an illness. He had a wedding picture in his office.” But outwardly, he lived the way the people of Roslyn seemed to want a superintendent to live. His Mercedes was one example. Serving lobster tails to other superintendents at a regional luncheon was another. “You’re not going to find many superintendents who live like Frank, because we’re afraid to,” another Long Island school superintendent says. “You don’t want to appear overpaid. He lived the opposite way. He acted as if he was entitled to it—to the car, to the clothes, to the money.”
During working lunches, Tassone would go on about how the school district should act like any private corporation with an $80 million budget. “He thought the salaries of administrators should be as high as possible,” says Piemonte. “That these jobs had a great deal of subtlety and required education. He’d say, ‘Look at the CEO of IBM—they’re making zillions and we’re making $200,000.’ ”
If Tassone was the proud father of the Roslyn family, Pam Gluckin was the fun-loving aunt. Bubbly and industrious, the mother of two liked to poke fun at herself and how hard she worked. If the board assigned her a task, one board member says, “she used to joke, ‘All of you go home, stay with your children; I’ll be working till six o’clock in the morning on this one.’ ” She commuted from middle-class Bellmore but lived very much like a typical Roslyn working mom, with homes in Westhampton Beach and Florida, and a Jaguar with a vanity plate reading DUNENUTN.
Gluckin became one of Tassone’s closest confidantes at the office. She arrived two years before Tassone as a treasurer, and Tassone promoted her until she landed the district’s top-money job, assistant superintendent for business. “They were very comfortable with each other, playful, jovial,” a former board member says. “He made a lot of jokes about how she had a lot of names because she was married so many times—and about her dogs, which he said were like her children.” After staff lunches, Gluckin would stay behind to kibitz with Tassone, sometimes for more than an hour.
“Pam went everywhere with him,” says Eleanor Russell. “She would attend meetings at individual schools, and districtwide committee meetings, like the committee on special education or enrollment. He relied on Pam to do everything. He’d say, ‘Oh, Pam will work it out.’ ” She was the one who handed out the gas credit cards and approved trips to other cities for conferences, and furnished some board members with computers and cell phones. A few employees even got Jeeps.
One Roslyn parent calls Tassone “Pecksniffian.” The name refers to a Dickens character who exploits the weaknesses of others, and is selfish and corrupt behind a display of benevolence.
ome say Tassone simply wasn’t good with numbers—that language was his forte. And if at times Gluckin seemed sloppy, too, Tassone would be protective of her. “One time she gave me a check for too much money for the benefit fund and she told me to just keep it,” Russell remembers. “I said, ‘Are you kidding？’ She said, ‘What’s the big deal？ We’ll owe you money in a couple months and that’ll cover it.’ I took the check to Frank and he tried to minimize her mistake, saying, ‘It’s not that important.’ ”
It was pure luck that allowed Tassone to get a look at the anonymous letter before the media did. The letter had been sent in February to a Who’s Who of local politicians, but one copy went to the wrong address. And since the envelope had been disguised to look like it was from the school district, the post office routed it straight to Tassone’s office.
We believe that Dr. Frank Tassone participated in this embezzlement scandal so as to support HIS lavish lifestyle, with the help of Ms. Gluckin. He submitted … his personal credit-card statements, bills for personal vacations and trips, and various household bills … and included them in the cover-up.
ut before anyone could start pointing fingers at Tassone, he launched a preemptive defense. “He calls me in, and he says, ‘There’s this letter and none of it’s true,’ ” Piemonte remembers. Secretaries in the building, union leaders, custodians, school administrators, the PTA—they all were summoned, hearing firsthand how shocked he was that the business manager had done this to them—to us, to the Roslyn community. And the community believed him. Some even praised him for being so forthcoming. While spending perhaps a bit too much time trying to find out who the author was, Tassone had little trouble finding ways to discredit the letter itself: The district’s return address on the envelope was misspelled; so was Tassone’s name.
When the D.A. launched its investigation in February, it was Tassone who suggested bringing back Andrew Miller, the accountant who had noticed the missing $250,000 two years earlier, to go through the books of Gluckin’s tenure with a fine-tooth comb. This time, thanks to the leads from the letter, Miller found a more professional style of embezzlement than he’d seen in 2002—phony companies, for example, instead of just suspicious checks. Soon, Miller put the amount of missing money at $1 million. Newsday caught wind of it and reported it—and the community stepped in, demanding its pound of flesh. Once-sleepy school-board meetings became last spring as stormy as Knesset hearings, lit garishly by those TV crews the board had feared two years earlier.
till, the target of Roslyn’s anger wasn’t Tassone; it was the school board. The decision to protect Gluckin back in 2002—to let her resign rather than pressing charges—was seen as collusive, conspiratorial, even Faustian. Tassone, for his part, was seen by Roslynites as valiantly coming to the board’s defense, telling everyone who would listen how upset he was, how betrayed they all felt by Gluckin. “We called it ‘The Seduction of Pam Gluckin,’ ” one former board member says.
tate Comptroller Alan Hevesi vowed to audit Roslyn’s books. And before long, the community rallied behind Tassone. The Journal piece naming Roslyn High School one of the nation’s best public high schools was published April 2, and at the next board meeting parents stood up pledging support for their superintendent. In a local newspaper column, Tassone tried to explain why they let Gluckin resign without pressing charges, effectively passing the buck to the accountant and lawyer who had advised the board. “If we had known then everything we know now,” he wrote, “we would certainly have taken a different course of action.”
There was only one problem: The accountant and lawyer wouldn’t take the fall. At an explosive April board meeting, Tom Hession, the attorney who had advised the board in 2002, insisted that he had been telling the board only what was legal, not ethical. Andrew Miller also defended himself, noting that auditors for New York State school districts aren’t supposed to be looking for outright fraud, just irregularities. Board president Bill Costigan, searching for answers, asked Tassone where he had found Tom Hession in the first place. Tassone said he was referred by Carol Hoffman, the district’s usual lawyer. But when Costigan called Hoffman, she was outraged, arguing that Hession had been brought in by Tassone. And when Costigan confronted Tassone, Tassone changed his story, saying Hession was referred by someone else.
Until that moment, most everyone in Roslyn still seemed to believe Tassone had been in the dark about Gluckin. But Costigan couldn’t help but wonder: Did Tassone go shopping for a favorable legal opinion before that meeting in 2002？ Had the whole Gluckin resignation been stage-managed by the superintendent？ From that point forward, Costigan decided never to meet with Tassone alone.
y late April, Tassone’s office was under siege. Gluckin’s records were rapidly turning out to be fiction. Newsday was filing almost daily public-information requests, uncovering check records for hundreds of thousands of dollars with companies that, once contacted, said they’d received nowhere near that amount. Slowly, others besides Costigan started wondering how Tassone couldn’t have known about this. By then, Tassone was like a wraith, barely there in spirit even when he did bother to show up physically. His cell-phone records show that he spent much of March and April jetting to Las Vegas, Puerto Rico, then California, Florida, and Las Vegas twice again. At first, his employees shrugged and joked that he managed to be out of town every time he had to decide to call a snow day. Now they wondered if he was ducking trouble.
On May 12, Bill Costigan got a call from a lawyer for the school district, telling him to call Andrew Miller as soon as possible.
“We may have uncovered more than $1 million,” Miller said. “And I think it involves Frank.”
The same superintendent who introduced “values-based” education into the school system also had billed the district for his Upper East Side rent, his Mercedes, even jewelry and skin treatments. Miller said he discovered that Tassone had padded his expense account with the most ridiculous purchases—like $33,141 for the dry cleaning that always draped his office conference table.
When Tassone met with Costigan and board member Karen Bodner the next day, Costigan was angry enough to suggest that Tassone consider resigning. But Tassone brushed him off.
“Look at my contract,” they recall Tassone saying. “It covers all ‘reasonable expenses.’ ”
“Maybe we should have bought your clothes, too？” Costigan asked.
“Well, that’s a matter of opinion,” said Tassone.
“What if the D.A. indicts you on this？” Costigan asked.
“That’ll never happen,” said Tassone.
Tassone’s final public appearance in Roslyn turned out to be a PTA meeting on May 28, the Friday before Memorial Day weekend. The missing amount of money had just escalated to $5 million, and Tassone and the board had decided to fire accountant Andrew Miller. The district’s lawyers were also let go.
“We’re your supporters,” said Faith Russo, a mother of two boys at Harbor Hill Elementary. “Why do we have to hear about this from someone else？”
Russo was shocked to see Tassone pointing at her, screaming: “You’re going to listen to me! You’re going to listen to me!” “He wouldn’t let her finish,” says Denyse Dreksler, another mother. “He went from being the therapist to the manic.”
Russo’s heart sank. She realized she was upsetting a powerful person in her life. “I was afraid my kids were gonna get custodians as teachers,” she says.
To her relief, Amy Katz, another PTA member, came to her aid. “You keep changing your story,” she said to Tassone.
And another mom, Lisa Levine, started asking about the district’s new lawsuit against Gluckin.
“I don’t know,” Tassone said, throwing up his hands. “The law firm knows.”
“Is that the same law firm that you just fired？” asked Levine.
team seemed to be escaping from Tassone’s ears. Finally he exploded.
“How many of you ladies in here are lawyers？”
ure enough, Russo, Katz, and Levine were all lawyers. So were other moms in the room.
It took Anthony Annunziato just a few hours at his new job to connect the meat of the scandal to Frank Tassone. On June 1, Roslyn’s new assistant superintendent for business—Pam Gluckin’s long-awaited replacement—started his day by looking into a company called WordPower that, over the past dozen years, had collected $800,000 from Roslyn, mainly for word processing. What bothered him was that the company wasn’t located in Roslyn, but in Manhattan—specifically, at Tassone’s home address, 160 East 88th Street. It took just a few keystrokes, using an Internet reverse phone directory, for Annunziato to find that the number of WordPower CEO Steve Signorelli was connected not just to Tassone’s address but to his apartment.
efore long, Annunziato spoke to Tassone, by phone, in Ft. Lauderdale.
“Frank,” Annunziato said. “These people live in your apartment.”
“Well, they live in my building,” Tassone said. Annunziato couldn’t believe he was sticking to that story. But then Tassone changed tactics.
“We have to figure out how we’re going to spin this,” Tassone said.
“I’m not sure you can,” said Annunziato.
The whole thing reminded Annunziato of the movie No Way Out with Kevin Costner. “He knew he was going to get caught.”
ill Costigan called an emergency meeting for June 2. Tassone caught wind of it and called Costigan from Florida.
“The board doesn’t meet without the superintendent,” Tassone said coolly.
“You told me you’d be home today,” Costigan said.
“I’ll see what I can do,” Tassone said.
On June 4, the day after he came home, Tassone was relieved of duty by the board.
For an $8 million embezzlement, the Roslyn scandal was remarkably low-tech. The trick, prosecutors say, was in the check-writing. When Gluckin decided to pay her mortgage to Wells Fargo Bank with the district’s money, for example, she simply notated “Wells Fargo” in the check ledger, knowing that the district used a security company called Wells Fargo. In other cases, she abbreviated: “M&T” could be Manufacturers and Traders Trust Co., the mortgage holder on Gluckin’s waterfront home in Bellmore, which was paid a recorded $56,881.96.
It also helped that Tassone appears to have stocked the district with friends. There was a district clerk, Debra Rigano, who arranged travel for the administrators for those trips to Vegas, New Orleans, Boston, and London, and who moonlighted with a travel agency that gave her commissions for her bookings. (One frequent companion of Tassone’s on those trips, it turns out, was his apparent apartment mate, WordPower CEO Steve Signorelli.) Rigano’s aunt happens to be Pam Gluckin, and even after Gluckin resigned in 2002, Rigano was kept on. She was finally let go the same day Tassone resigned, after it was discovered Tassone approved a one-hour overtime charge for her of $1,081.
There was also Tom Galinski, the buildings-and-grounds supervisor, who once worked in the same district as Gluckin and who flew at no expense with Tassone on many of those trips to Las Vegas. Before being hired by Roslyn, Galinski had worked for a contractor he subsequently recommended to redo Roslyn High’s leaking roof. When the leak persisted, Roslyn hired them to do it again, and again, and again.
And there was Al Razzetti, a personnel consultant whom Tassone made an internal auditor—rubber-stamping every bill and check Tassone and Gluckin wrote. Tassone kept him on the payroll even after the board declined to renew his contract. Finally, Razzetti had a sister, Fran Pertusi, whom Tassone made a consultant, earning $300,000 over nine years. Pertusi happened to be a close friend of Tassone’s from his days as superintendent in Levittown.
Who was minding the store？ The auditor, Andrew Miller, wasn’t supposed to confirm with every listed check recipient that the money was properly recorded. No school district has that kind of oversight—something Hevesi is addressing now. In the past five years, auditors have checked the books of just fourteen of Long Island’s 124 school districts, even though they spend more than $7 billion in total annually. Tassone and Gluckin, with years of experience between them, must have understood that.
As the scandal unfolded, details of Tassone’s private life became public. In April, he reportedly closed on a house in the Las Vegas suburbs with Jason Daugherty, a onetime motorcycle salesman and exotic dancer, who, it turns out, employees remember visited the office a few times. A clerk in the district, Phyllis Zampino, recognizes Daugherty’s name as the recipient of FedEx packages Tassone sent every week from the district for the past year—since about the time Gluckin was forced to retire. No one in the office seems to know what was in those packages.Between Daugherty and Signorelli, Roslyn had plenty to dish about over the summer. If the implication is that Tassone is gay, many Roslynites now claim they suspected as much all along; they just never said so. “This is a very socially advanced community, very liberal,” one of Tassone’s old employees says. “It’s like it wouldn’t have been cool even to bring it up.” Neither Daugherty nor Signorelli has commented on their sexuality, or anything else.
Hindsight has dredged up all sorts of revisionist judgments of Tassone. Some now remember him as popping herbal vitality pills, and, at one point, fen-phen. He used $56,645 in school money to pay for treatments by a Manhattan weight-loss doctor named Steven Lamm, though he told Newsday he paid for the treatments out of his own pocket. Says one parent: “Suddenly it’s not Frank in a Ford Taurus with his pants way up to here—it’s Frank with his hair slicked back and a face-lift.” Parents and teachers couldn’t fail to notice long light scars behind his ears. A few years into his tenure, he showed up to a parents’ meeting with small bruises around both eyes. He said he had been boxing, but people in Roslyn know an eye tuck when they see one.
ot that any of this raised eyebrows at the time. “He made $250,000,” says Bill Costigan. “He was single. He told us he lived in a rent-stabilized building. So when he showed up in a Brooks Brothers suit, that made perfect sense. And he had a $500 car allowance. You could lease a Mercedes with that.”
Judi Winters, a neighborhood activist who, in almost daily e-mail blasts to Roslyn neighbors, has compared the scandal to Vietnam, tells me she has come up with the perfect way to describe Tassone: “Pecksniffian.” The name refers to Mr. Pecksniff, a Dickens character who exploited the weaknesses of others, and who is selfish and corrupt behind a display of benevolence.
“Frank is a tremendous manipulator of people,” fumes Andrew Miller, “which is probably why some people thought he was a great superintendent.”
And while Peter Mancuso, the assistant district attorney handling the case, does admit that Tassone “was not the person who was actually signing the district’s checks,” the prosecutor insists that Tassone “lies at the heart of this. He’s the person who benefited from those checks.”
Gluckin and Tassone, out on bail, aren’t commenting other than to profess their innocence. Tassone’s lawyer, Ed Jenks, is relying heavily on the porous terms of Tassone’s contract to justify the superintendent’s extravagances. Neighbors speculate that Gluckin may cut a deal to implicate Tassone, while Tassone is expected to cast himself as a hapless naïf, entangled by Gluckin’s schemes. Then there are those who believe Gluckin and Tassone are only part of the problem. Pat Schissel, a nineteen-year veteran of the school board who has been castigated in meetings for having accepted the free use of a cell phone and computer from the district (“Dr. Tassone said ‘Okay,’ ” she told me plaintively), suggests that Roslyn is “a Peyton Place situation. It’s hard to keep your values if you ever had them. I think people can get caught up in that. And Frank may have gotten caught up in that.”
o Roslyn is to blame？ Naturally, this isn’t the most popular opinion in town. “There were so many things Frank tended to very carefully,” says Charlie Piemonte. “It would be pretty hard to think he was this bumbling administrator who got swept up.”
At the start of the school year, the scandal still hasn’t stopped claiming careers. There’s a new superintendent, a new school-board president, and a new high-school principal. Bill Costigan has stepped down as president, but he refused to leave the board, saying no one was more duped by Tassone than he was. Of course, in making that claim, he has plenty of company.
“My life is now The Sixth Sense,” says Karen Bodner, who was voted out of office in June. Even now, she stays up late thinking about the night after that fateful meeting in 2002, consoling Tassone in the lobby of a Syracuse hotel where the board was staying for a school-board conference.
“He was so distraught,” she says. “He needed to vent—‘How could Pam do this？’ And I said, ‘She must be a sociopathic personality, because it seems like such an amateur way of embezzling money—it’s not even clever.’ And we talked for hours—he’s drawing this out of me! And then later I learn that he’s doing the same thing？
“Maybe he was trying to figure out whether any of us suspected him,” she goes on. “Here he’s a Ph.D., he’s a Dickens scholar. He must have thought we were rich people from the North Shore, we were spoiled, we were whatever.”
till, she can’t help thinking fondly of the man she considered a mentor. As much as she can know anything, Bodner still believes—maybe she needs to believe—that Frank Tassone was capable of kindness.
“I was going through a separation last summer, and he called me from Europe to see how I was doing,” Bodner says. “He seemed legitimately concerned. And I can’t tell you now that he wasn’t. But maybe that phone call was him making sure everyone was behind him. These are questions I’ll never have the answers to.”
“It’s The Music Man,” I suggest.
“Yes, it is,” Bodner says. “That’s exactly what it is.”