Law vs. sex crime

Now private schools must tell cops of abuse

ALBANY — Private schools will be required to report to law enforcement all allegations of sexual abuse, under a bill signed into law Friday by Gov. Cuomo.

The new law puts private schools on equal footing with public schools, which have been required for years to automatically report abuse to law enforcement, parents and education officials.

It also expands who must be mandatory reporters to any employee or volunteer whose duties involve direct student contact as well as contracted bus drivers.

“There is nothing more important than the safety and well being of our children,” Cuomo said. “With this bill, we are closing a frightening gap in the law and taking action to ensure all students in both public and private schools are protected from abuse.”

All told, 1.5 million students who weren’t covered under the law will now be. Employees and administrators in public schools who fail to report abuse can face a class A misdemeanor and up to a $500 fine, as well as loss of their professional license.

“I think it’s pretty great,” said Kat Sullivan, who has said her rape as a student in 1998 by a teacher at upstate private girls school Emma Willard was never reported to authorities.

Sullivan, who said her attacker went on to teach outside New York, said private schools will no longer be able to quietly shuffle teachers out with no repercussions.

“Truly this has been a giant loophole,” she said. “People shouldn’t be able to leave with a nice clean resume, say (they left) for personal reasons, and move on to another institution. Now there is going to be some record of permanence that an investigation into the behaviors or actions of the individual was done.”

In recent weeks, Campbell Conard, a 15-year-old sophomore at The Chapin School in Manhattan, created an online petition urging Cuomo to sign the bill. The petition on Change.org garnered nearly 12,000 signatures.

Conard said neither she nor anyone she knows has suffered abuse at school, but felt compelled to act because of the #MeToo movement and assemblies at her school and school lunch discussions during the Brett Kavanaugh U.S. Supreme Court Senate confirmation hearings.

“That’s amazing,” she said when told the bill was signed by Cuomo. “I was really unsure if he was going to do it. Even though I think it’s a great idea, I know it wasn’t done in the past, so I’m really excited.”

State Association for Independent Schools Executive Director Mark Lauria said his organization, which represents private schools, “has been in support of the bill throughout the legislative process.”

A New York City Department of Education spokesman did not return a call for comment.