Suit: School punished vic of gang rape
WHEN A TEEN girl with a below-average IQ reported being sexually assaulted at her Brooklyn school, city education officials responded quickly — by suspending her, a federal lawsuit charges.
The 15-year-old girl has an IQ of just 71 and possessed an unblemished disciplinary record when she was coerced into a stairwell at Teachers Preparatory High School (inset) in Brooklyn and forced to perform sex acts on two boys while five others stood by, according to the suit.
But instead of punishing her assailants, school officials suspended the girl for engaging in sexual activity at school, the suit says.
And this happened despite the fact that one of her attackers was later arrested by police, the girl’s attorney said.
“My client is a 15-year-old girl of color on public assistance with a severe developmental disorder who was gang-raped at her Brooklyn school and then suspended for it,” said lawyer Carrie Goldberg, who is representing the girl.
According to the suit, the girl was walking in a school hallway to see teacher on Feb. 5, 2016, when the group of seven students surrounded her.
One boy grabbed the girl by the arm and pulled her into an unmonitored stairwell, where the teens pushed her to her knees and forced her to perform a sex act on two of them.
Six days later, the traumatized teen reported the incident to a counselor. But after a 24-hour investigation, school officials decided the incident was consensual and suspended the girl.
Education Department officials wouldn’t say if any of boys involved were also suspended, citing privacy laws.
One of the attackers was arrested and charged with sexual misconduct and sexual assault but because the case was sealed, the Brooklyn district attorney’s office wouldn’t provide the outcome of the charges.
Education Department officials reversed the suspension almost two months after the assault, but according to the lawsuit, the girl never recovered.
She suffers from extreme anxiety, sleeplessness, hair loss, skin rashes, anger issues and PTSD, among other injuries.
Goldberg filed a federal civil rights complaint over the incident in June and now seeks unspecified damages from the city on behalf of the girl and her mother. The attorney is known for her work with victims of sexual crimes and complaints brought by her firm have resulted in three active federal civil rights investigations of the city Education Department, including the Teachers Prep case.
Goldberg said city schools have a pattern of punishing victims of sexual assaults and praised the young student from Teachers Prep for coming forward.
“These girls are not believed and instead of being helped after a horrifying tragedy, they’re punished,” Goldberg said. “If there are heroes in this world, she and her mom are heroes.”
The girl transferred out of Teachers Prep at the end of the 2015-2016 school year and now attends another school. She and her mother declined to be interviewed over concerns for the girl’s privacy.
Education Department spokeswoman Miranda Barbot wouldn’t answer any questions related to what happened at Teachers Prep, but she said the city schools follow policies to ensure that all incidents are addressed.