REPORT: SCHOOLS HID SEX ATTACKS

According to Special Schools Investigator Ed Stancik, administrators at two city schools failed to call police after several girls said they were sexually abused because the officials wanted to protect their reputations or were too busy.  In one case, during an attack in June at IS 278, several sixth and seventh grade girls were thrown into sprinklers at a nearby park and allegedly stripped and molested by several boy students.  The girls reported the attacks to school officials but little was done.  Officials even refused to report the attacks after parents demanded they do so and parents who said they would call police themselves were ordered out of the school.  Six eighth grade boys at the school were eventually charged with first degree sexual abuse after parents notified police.  Seven boys were charged with sexual abuse for attacking a girl in June at MS 180 in Rockaway Beach, Queens.