CLASS ‘PERV’ SHOCK (OK’d despite past)

Mario Martis, a 29 year old accused pedophile, slept with at least three elementary-school boys after their principal assigned him as a school volunteer despite knowing about his criminal history with another child.  Sidney Massey, who headed PS 37, knew that Martis had admitted endangering a 12 year old boy in 2000, when he invited him into the East Harlem school three years later.  Massey was removed from the school and reassigned to administrative duty when the new scandal surfaced last year.  Before the probe was complete, he resigned.  Martis' history began in 1998, when he was an aide at PS 37.  He was reassigned after complaints were lodged about his relationship with a 8 year old boy who attended the school.  No charges were filed in that case.  Two years later he was busted after the 12 year old whom he was tutoring outside school charged he had sodomized him.  Martis plead guilty to endangering the welfare of a child and was placed on the Department of Education's ineligible list.  In the latest case Martis admitted to sleeping with three (PS 37) boys, ages 9 to 12.  Martis had befriended them and invited them to his home.  One boy was ordered not to tell his mother that they slept together because she might get upset.  Martis was assigned to patrol the boys' locker room and played ball with numerous students on weekends and also coached the school basketball team.  Massey refused to give Martis' name to one suspicious parent who asked for it.  Massey repeatedly sought to interfere with the probe and when investigators sought to interview students and parents, he would call them first.

(New York)