Mount Vernon – Correction: In an earlier version of this story incorrectly 0n May 13th, Black Westchester Magazine reported that The New York State Teacher’s Union (NYSUT) endorsed the team of Omar McDowell, Darcy Miller, and Edward Poteat for Mount Vernon City School District Trustees based off a press release by the team’s publicist Delia Farquharson. Over the next 36 hours, BW received several calls that the information was false.
After several calls Monday morning we finally got Carl Korn, the Chief Press Officer of New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), who after looking into the situation and calling us back, let us know “NYSUT definitely does not endorse local candidates and no we did not endorse the three candidates in question in Mount Vernon.”
We showed him what appeared to be an endorsement on NYSUT letterhead (that we ran with the news brief) and he explained, ‘This was sent to the local union presidents to show who all the local unions were supporting.”
We questioned those who gave us the press release and called us to encourage us to share it in BW for clarification after talking to Mr. Korn and was referred to Jeff Yonkers, the President of the Mount Vernon Federation of Teacher.
Mr. Yonkers basically confirmed what Mr. Korn at the NYSUT shared earlier and explained the Mount Vernon Federation of Teachers (MVFT) endorsed the three candidates, not the NYSUT. While the MVFT is part of the NYSUT, the NYSUT does not endorse local candidates. On the NYSUT endorsement letter, after the words, Mount Vernon is FT for Federation ofTeachers.
“The MVFT supports this year’s School Budget and also is supporting the Incumbent’s for School Board Trustee positions; Darcy Miller, Omar McDowell and their running mate Edward Poteat,” Jeff Yonkers MVFT shares with BW via email.
In an effort to ensure that errors online are corrected as quickly as possible, we want to clarify our standards in this area and announce some changes to the process. We are committed to accuracy and transparency. We generally revise the story to make it accurate AND append a correction to the file. Typically, online corrections read like this: “Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported …” BW apologizes for the misinformation in our previous story and hopes this clears up the matter.
Delia Farquharson is the publicist for the candidates Miller, McDowell and Poteat. She has been disgraceful in her handling of all the public notices.
I always thought Ms. Farquharson was an upstanding person who sincerely cared about the city’s residents, especially the school district’s students, but her behavior during this past few weeks campaigning for her chosen candidates has been nothing less than dishonorable.
It’s unfortunate that her candidates have allowed themselves to be dragged down to the very bottom of the proverbial swamp. Has she taken lessons from President Donald Trump?
Ms. Farquharson has been disseminating “fake news” and lies. She not only disgraced herself, but she’s disgraced the three candidates she’s supporting. The city has been divided for many years because of various political factions, and she has further added to it through her unprofessional and discourteous propaganda.
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