The official took her children on free trips that were intended for homeless schoolchildren

Six employees of the New York City public school system took their children or grandchildren on field trips to Disneyland, New Orleans and other places using tickets intended for students in shelters, according to Silive.

Enrichment trips for students living in shelters and other temporary housing included excursions to Washington, D.C., Boston, and Broadway shows.

According to the report, Linda Wilson worked as a regional manager at a Queens office that supports students in temporary housing. She took her children on such trips, which were paid for by grants for homeless students. Wilson encouraged the staff she supervised to do the same, but kept quiet about it.

"What happens stays between us," Wilson was quoted as saying by one employee.

Wilson denied taking her two daughters on the trips or encouraging them employees take their children with them. She called the special commissioner's investigation a "witch hunt."

Cynical fraud

Investigation began after a whistleblower filed a complaint in March 2019. The commissioner's report, covering trips made between 201 and 2019, was completed in January 2023 and was only released to the public on September 9.

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According to the report, Wilson forged travel authorizations for family members and circumvented oversight by the city's Department of Education. She used a third-party agency to book the trips.

Some were intended as college tours. The students and their chaperones never actually visited the campuses, witnesses told investigators.

A group that included Wilson and one of her daughters, as well as other employees and their children, dined at Syracuse University during a June 2018 trip. But they never visited the school. The group instead went to Niagara Falls, according to the investigation.

The commissioner's office recommended that Wilson and the other employees named in the report be fired and that they reimburse the school system for travel expenses for their family members.
Wilson insisted she was retired and not fired.

"All employees identified in this report are no longer employed by New York City public schools," said Jenna Lyle, a spokeswoman for the Education Department.