b"\x02Leroy NiasBoard of Education, School Safety AgentMember since1981The following is an edited version of Leroy Niass oral history interview from July 12, 2016I first started to work for school safety in February 1981. I joined the Union after my probation period. At that time,I think it was, two months probation. As soon as I could, I jumped and I made sure I joined the union. I didn't hesitate at all.Did you have any friends or family that encouraged you to work for the City? Well, I worked for a private company before, for five years, as a machine shop worker. Then I got another job at General Electric; it's another union job. I worked for another five years and then got laid off. I went to the Manpower Employment agency in Brooklyn. I was doing an interview with the lady and she got a phone call about a job for someonebilingual to work at the school. So, she gave me a little synopsis of what they're looking for. I said: Well, you got the rightperson. She said: You speak Spanish? I said: Yeah. She said: Oh okay, you think you could do this? I said: Of course,I could try it. And she gave me the address and they sent me out. The work was in a school to help out as a family assis-tant.What kind of job was that?It's a school contact person. If a kid doesnt show up at school, I would get in touch with the parents. If there was noway to get in touch with the parents, then I would go out to the house, like a truant officer. I would take a letter telling theparent that they have to come down to the school. In those days, there was no telephone, there was no cellular phone,there was no beeper. So, you went to them and you requested them to see the counselor. But there was a problem. Thelady said: Listen, this job is available, but right now there's no money and maybe in two months, might be three monthsbefore you get paid. I said: Okay, I'll do it for free. I figured I would get paid eventually. I was able to do that because I was working nights and I was free in the daytime, so I said I'll do it. And I worked there for four years, part time. SinceI volunteered to take the job, they helped speed up my processing and that's why I was able to get into the city job.Was it a union job?No, something different. It was part time and I got a stipend when the money was available in the budget. In those days, talking about 1970 '72, '74, it was very hard to get into unions. That was an opportunity for me to get intoa city job. My papers were process in two weeks and I was able to get paid. They said: Only because you volunteered totake the job without pay, we can process you. From there, I saw they had a full time position working as school safety.I applied for that. It took maybe two years, three years before it materialized. By that time though, I got laid off from the141 "