Principal commits suicide after allegations of tampering with state English exams

49-years-old Principal Jeanene Worrell-Breeden       ©Teachers College

49-year-old Jeanene Worrell-Breeden, principal of Teachers College Community School in West Harlem was reported to have jumped in front of the B train on St. Nicholas Avenue. She was pulled out from under the train and taken to Harlem Hospital, where she died eight days later. The Medical Examiner’s office has ruled it as suicide. Worrell-Breeden had been officially accused of tampering with the school’s Common Core exams in English, after a whistle-blower made the information known to the Department of Education (DOE), the day she committed suicide.

Teachers College Community School in Harlem      (C)Angel Chevrestt

Apparently, according to one of her friends, ‘Her grandmother died last year. Her husband moved out last year. He had a child with another woman. She was the first principal at that school so she was trying to make a good impression. She was under a lot of pressure at home’. The DOE spokeswoman Devora Kaye said in a statement, "Principal Worrell-Breeden was the subject of allegations of testing improprieties. An investigation substantiated these allegations, and we closed the investigation following her tragic passing”. However, Kaye would not say how Worrell-Breeden allegedly tampered with the tests