Student at top NYC high school sexually assaulted by classmate: suit

The Bobster

Senior News Editor since 2004

Student at top NYC high school sexually assaulted by classmate: suit​



By
Priscilla DeGregory


January 17, 2023 3:41pm
Updated





NYC Lab School for Collaborative Studies.
A Manhattan high school student claims another pupil sexually assaulted her in the girls' bathroom. Google Maps






An 11th-grader at one of New York City’s top non-specialized public schools claims she was sexually assaulted in a bathroom by a classmate who videotaped the incident and sent the recording around to other students, according to a new lawsuit.
The teen girl, identified as “Jane Doe,” was grilled about the video by the assistant principal at the NYC Lab School for Collaborative Studies — who didn’t bother to notify her parents, a school counselor or the police before questioning her, the Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit alleges.
“Without regard to the status of [Doe] as an underaged victim of sexual assault or her apparent emotional and psychological trauma, [the assistant principal] forced [her] to write a statement describing her sexual assault,” the suit charges.
This took place while she was alone in the assistant principal’s office “and without the support of a trauma expert, thereby retraumatizing her,” the Friday filing states.
Doe says that “unbeknownst” to her, a male student at the West 17th Street school in Chelsea followed her on Nov. 4, 2021, into the first-floor girls’ bathroom, where he sexually assaulted her.
There was no security guard or monitor at the bathroom and the teen boy announced himself standing between her and the bathroom exit, the suit claims.
The alleged attacker — who is identified as N.R. in the court papers — “demanded” that the girl give him oral sex, which she told him she didn’t want to do, according to the lawsuit.
NYC Lab School for Collaborative Studies.The girl claims there was no one supervising the hallways or the bathrooms when the incident occurred.Google Maps
N.R. “forced [her] into the a bathroom stall,” pushed her onto the floor, “held the back of her head” and forced her into the sex act, all without her consent, the suit charges.
Later that day, Doe discovered that N.R. had recorded the incident with his cellphone and showed it and sent it to other students, the court papers say.
The assistant principal found out about N.R.’s video and that he’d been showing it to others and he pulled Doe out of class to question her about it, the suit claims.
The girl and her father — only identified in court papers as Joe Doe — claim the school was negligent in failing to protect her especially given that her dad had reported previously that his daughter was a victim of bullying and had been physically assaulted by another student in October 2019, the court papers claim.







Doe’s dad had even requested that she be transferred after the prior incident, but the assistant principal — who is not named as a defendant in the suit — didn’t approve the move, the filing claims.


The school was also negligent in failing to properly investigate and report the sexual assault and failing to supervise the hallways and bathrooms, the suit claims.


And it also knew that N.R. was a problem student who “had a reputation for engaging in dangerous behaviors,” the lawsuit alleges.


The dad and daughter are suing the city and the Department of Education for unspecified damages.


They are asking a judge to allow their identities to remain confidential since they are originally from an Islamic country in the Middle East. The duo fear the daughter could be executed if she returned home and the country had learned about the sexual assault.





The Post found in December 2021 that NYC Lab was one of the Big Apple’s top 12 best non-specialized schools — with a 98% graduation rate.


The city Law Department, the DOE and the assistant principal, Jason Koch, did not return requests for comment Tuesday.
 
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