SEX ABUSE ON THE BUS
Ma: School ignored daughter, 11
Bus workers and city school administrators covered up and failed to act on reports of sexual harassment suffered by a Brooklyn student on her bus rides to school — leading the traumatized girl to seek therapy, an explosive new lawsuit charges.
Brooklyn mom Tanya Trowell, 44, said her daughter Malaysia, 11, has been harassed by a 10-year-old classmate on several occasions on the way to school in Borough Park since the start of the school year.
As alleged in her lawsuit, Trowell said her daughter’s classmate exposed himself to the girl on multiple occasions but bus matrons did nothing when they were notified and school administrators sought to bury the matter.
“I want it to be addressed,” Trowell said. “I don’t know what’s going on with (the boy), but his parents need to know.”
Both Trowell’s daughter and the accused student attend Public School 231K, a school for students with disabilities. Malaysia has a learning disorder. Trowell said she doesn’t know the specifics of the boy’s disabilities.
The Brooklyn mom said the first incident occurred on Nov. 21, when the boy grabbed her daughter’s arm and leg with one hand while his other hand was down his pants on a ride to school.
Trowell said she told the bus matron, an employee of Reliant Transportation, but the matron failed to notify school staff or discipline the boy.
Then, Trowell said, Malaysia made videos of the boy harassing her on two subsequent occasions.
In one, filmed on Nov. 29, the boy is seen seated at the back of a school bus, pulling his pants back up.
The girl complained to the matron again, she said, but nothing was done.
Trowell said she contacted the assistant principal of PS 231K, Lauren Wodzanowski, who allegedly said she “would look into it.”
Meanwhile, the harassment persisted, Trowell said.
In a second video, which was shot Dec. 4, the boy is seen, again sitting on a school bus, naked from the waist down. He pulls a coat over his lap and, smiling, quickly removes it before putting it back.
This time the girl went straight to her mother, who said she spoke to the girl’s teacher, who reported the incident to Wodzanowski.
Trowell said the girl’s phone was confiscated on Dec. 7 by Wodzanowski.
Trowell said Wodzanowski left her three voice mails regarding the phone that were review by the Daily News. In the messages, the caller urges Trowell to delete the incriminating videos on her daughter’s phone.
“My legal department contacted me, as for the incident that happened yesterday I had to confiscate Malaysia’s phone and keep it until you come up and physically delete the videos in front of me,” the woman identified by Trowell as Wodzanowski said on one of the recordings. “Until then, I cannot give that phone back to her.”
But Trowell went to the school demanded the phone back and received it, with the videos still on it.
Trowell said she’s since submitted a request to transfer Malaysia to a different school, and is seeking therapy for the girl.
“She has mood swings, she doesn’t want me to touch her,” Trowell said.
Trowell’s attorney, Sanford Rubenstein, is serving the city with a $5.5 million lawsuit over the matter on Friday.
“An 11-year-old female student on a school bus should not be put in a position in which a 10-year-old male student exposes himself to her, especially when the school bus matron had notice of this same behavior,” Rubenstein said.
Rubenstein said charges that Wodzanowski’s attempted to convince Trowell to delete the video were an attempt to hide what happened.
“If that’s not a coverup, I don’t know what is,” he said.
Wodzanowski didn’t respond to requests for comment, and reps for Reliant couldn’t be reached.
City Education Department spokesman Doug Cohen said school staffers reported Malaysia’s allegations and alerted police.
“Department of Education employees are required to report misconduct and preserve any evidence,” Cohen said.
“We are investigating the school bus allegations, and are reviewing how the school handled this situation,” he added.