New Rochelle HS Should Have Prevented Stairway Rape: Lawsuit

NEW ROCHELLE, NY — A lawsuit filed with the Westchester County Clerk last month makes a series of troubling allegations against New Rochelle school officials, saying their actions and failure to act directly contributed to the rape of a 14-year-old student in January 2020.

A horrific incident in a stairwell at New Rochelle High School, which was captured on security footage, is at the heart of the suit against the school district. The ninth-grade girl, whose family is suing the school, was pulled into the stairwell, choked and violently raped by a fellow classmate, according to the lawsuit.

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The victim alleges that school district officials not only ignored a history of bullying by her attacker since the seventh grade, but also failed to supervise the male classmate, who had a prior history of sexually abusing at least one other fellow student. The lawsuit argues that not only was the student with a troubled past left unsupervised, but the school failed in its duty to adequately maintain safe and secure common areas.

The city of New Rochelle was also named in the lawsuit, in part because the New Rochelle Police Department has “worked in conjunction with NRSD on numerous aspects of school safety matters, and the NRSD Board of Education included in numerous public documents that police are to be present at certain schools at certain times, police patrols are coordinated with the schools.”

Lawyers representing the school district have responded in legal filings by blaming the assault victim. The district’s written response to the lawsuit says that the 14-year-old student who was assaulted bears some of the responsibility for the attack.

“There was no negligence, fault or culpable conduct on the part of the defendant, City School District of New Rochelle, causing the damages alleged in the complaint,” lawyers for the district wrote in papers filed with the Westchester County Supreme Court. “Furthermore, there was contributory negligence, assumption of risk, contributory fault and/or culpable conduct attributable to the plaintiffs, to the extent of total and/or partial diminution of damages alleged in the complaint.”