Sign up for email newsletters

Sign up for email newsletters

KINGSTON, N.Y. — The school district is continuing its review of Kingston High School Principal Vincent DeCicco’s use of a homophobic term in a Facebook post, school officials said during a board meeting Wednesday night.

DeCicco remains on paid leave, District Superintendent Paul Padalino said on Wednesday. Paladino did not say what circumstances extended the process, which he had said was to end on Tuesday.

“I don’t have a set end date right now,” he said. “We’re still working through the decision-making process as well as working inside our legal processes.”

DeCicco was placed on paid administrative last week after word spread that he had answered a Facebook meme question with the term “f***gepackers.” The derogatory term was posted by DeCicco on a Facebook page post that read, “That football team you will never support even if you are given their jersey for free.”  He has said it was in reference to the Green Bay Packers as a Chicago Bears fan.

The term he used is a vulgar euphemism for gay men who engage in anal sex.

School board President Stephen Spicer said the issue was not going to be part of the meeting’s agenda, but acknowledged it had caught the attention of district residents.

“We understand that people have concerns and very strong opinions about how we should handle (the) widely publicized social media comment,” he said.

“I do want to assure everyone that we are working through the process in a thorough and thoughtful manner, and treating the situation with the level of seriousness that it deserves,” Spicer said. “We appreciate your patience as we continue to take the necessary steps to properly address this.”

District officials had learned of the posting through an email that included a screenshot of the post. The administrative review had already begun when school board members met in an executive session earlier this week

DeCicco last week apologized, saying that it was not his intention to be offensive.

“I apologize if my off-the-cuff post about a football team was offensive,” DeCicco said. “I have family members and friends who are part of the LBGTQ community and I have always respected and supported the LBGTQ community.”

However, the grassroots group Kingston Coalition for Equity Education countered that DeCicco has “much self examination to do” in understanding why his statement was considered a “non-apology” by some members of the community.

DeCicco, who was promoted to principal in 2019 at $140,000 per year, has been with the district for 16 years. He had been a Kingston High School vice principal for three years and was an interim principal at Myer Elementary School for a year.

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. We reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

Sign up for email newsletters