The Real Frank Tassone Is Pretty Miffed About Bad Education Telling His Story

The new HBO movie Bad Education premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2019, but the network is just now debuting the film for the public on April 25. The comedy drama starring Hugh Jackman, Allison Janney, Geraldine Viswanathan, and Ray Romano is based on a real-life scandal that rocked New York’s Roslyn school district. At the center of this hard-to-believe story is the district’s former superintendent Frank Tassone. With the movie’s release and the details of his crime resurfacing, Tassone has also (somewhat) reemerged to speak about where he is today and how he feels about his misconduct being made into a film. 

First, let’s start with some background about the case. Tassone (played by Jackman) was sentenced to 4 to 12 years in prison back in 2006 after he led a $11.2 million larceny scheme. According to a New York Times article published shortly after the ruling, after years of being praised for turning his school district into one of the best in the nation before being exposed, Tassone was found guilty of spending $2.2 million in embezzled funds on luxury vacations, gambling, dry cleaning bills, his apartment, and his vacation home. Others involved in the embezzlement, like Roslyn schools’ former administrator Pamela “Pam” Gluckin (played by Janney) and Tassone’s partner, Stephen Signorelli, also served jail time. 

Tassone was released from prison in 2010 (he made his first parole after three years) and according to Newsday, a New York newspaper, Tassone repaid Roslyn the $2 million he illegally spent. He has mainly stayed out of the public eye since his release. But with the premiere of Bad Education looming, on April 21 Tassone decided to go on “The Coach Mike Podcast” with life coach Mike Bayer to talk about his neverending regret for his actions and his lack of involvement with Bad Education. 

Bayer spent most of the podcast asking Tassone about his current feelings on his past crime and having to revisit it almost 10 years after his release. “I’m nervous and very upset since everything happened,” said the 73-year-old. He said he thought he was finally past the situation because he “made full restitution” and served his time. “Then when I found — after I had not been consulted — the film was coming out, it upset me more.” 

It isn’t a secret Tassone that was not contacted about the making of Bad Education. The film was written and produced by Mike Makowsky, who was a Roslyn middle school student when Tassone was first charged in 2004. Vanity Fair reported that Makowsky chose to not reach out to Tassone when writing the script and instead chose to speak to taxpayers, teachers, PTA members who had crossed paths with Tassone during his time as a superintendent. According to Tassone, HBO also didn’t reach out to him.

On “The Coach Mike Podcast,” Tassone recalled finding out about the movie from one of his friends. “I just crumbled,” he said. “I thought, ‘My God I thought this finally was over.’ It’ll never be over for me, I guess, because every day I feel pain.” He understands that there will now be more people who discover his crimes which, he said, will lead to him feeling more “ashamed.” Tassone also repeatedly stressed that he is unable to forgive himself. “I want to feel as though I’m sorry to the people of Roslyn,” he said. “I know they will never forgive me, but I paid my dues.” 

At this point (around the 35:30 mark), Bayer interjected and said he doesn’t feel Tassone needs to continue apologizing because “it is what it is” and he served his time. 

Tassone told Bayer that he plans to watch Bad Education but that “I’m afraid of seeing myself portrayed as being a liar, and a cheat, and a thief."