[Deathwatch] Edward Stancik, school investigator, 47

[Deathwatch Central]

Wednesday March 13 06:54 AM EST 
Schools Investigator Stancik Is Dead at 47
By ALISON GENDAR and JOE WILLIAMS

Special schools investigator Edward Stancik, who for more than a decade
worked to rid city schools of child molesters and crooks, died
yesterday at NYU Medical Center.

Stancik, 47, had been hospitalized for at least several weeks and had a
history of heart problems. His office listed the cause of death as
heart failure.

During Stancik's tenure, more than 1,000 school employees were fired or
disciplined as a result of his investigations. Many were later
convicted of crimes.

"He had a very difficult job, and he did it well," said former Mayor
David Dinkins, who created the post by executive order in 1990 and
hired Stancik.

Stancik, then deputy chief of the rackets bureau for Manhattan District
Attorney Robert Morgenthau, was the only person who had held the job.

In his first six weeks in office, Stancik arrested five teachers and
school workers on charges of sexually abusing students.

He continued to bulldoze his way through the school system, attracting
both headlines and resentment.

In one of his most significant achievements, Stancik documented rampant
patronage in local school districts and corruption in school board
elections, helping to spur a change in state law in 1996 that stripped
the city's community school boards of most of their power.

"We make people walk in the light. We shine a light in dark places,"
Stancik told the Daily News on Dec. 2, 2000, his 46th birthday.

Despite his skin-and-bones appearance, Stancik denied at the time that
he was sick and blamed a 40-pound weight loss on open-heart surgeries
in 1995 and 1997.

The tributes to Stancik poured in yesterday.

Schools Chancellor Harold Levy called Stancik's work "in the best
traditions of public service," and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani said, "Ed
was passionate about ridding our schools of those who would subvert the
system for personal gain."

"His life's work was fighting for the children of New York," said state
Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who worked for Stancik in Morgenthau's
office.

Stancik's detractors, including former Schools Chancellor Rudy Crew,
accused him of hyping cases of little substance, manipulating the media
and targeting peons while letting politically connected big fish slip
away.

Mayor Bloomberg said he did not have a replacement for Stancik
immediately in mind, but paid him tribute. "We are all much better off
because of his work," Bloomberg said. "He will be sorely missed."