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[UPDATE] Upper West Side Teacher's Aide Accused Of Sexually Abusing 8-Year-Old Girl
By
John Del Signore
Published Apr 26, 2012
Modified Apr 27, 2012
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By
John Del Signore
Published Apr 26, 2012
Modified Apr 27, 2012
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[UPDATE BELOW]
A NYC Department of Education Employee has been arrested and charged with sex abuse and endangering the welfare of a child. 35-year-old Hany Abdalla works as a teacher's aide at Upper West Side elementary school P.S. 84 (The Lillian Weber School for the Arts). A police spokesman tells City Room Abdalla allegedly "touched a female child 8 years old in inappropriate areas and also had her touch him in inappropriate areas."
According to the DOE, Abdalla has been working at the school since 2007, and had not been disciplined for anything before this. (Officials also confirm they did conduct a background check on Abdalla before he was hired.) He was suspended without pay on Monday after allegedly making a sexually-charged comment to a student. Now, according to police, his crime was even worse.
For those keeping track, Abdalla is at least the eighth DOE employee arrested for sex crimes involving students this year. That makes two a month on average, but Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott says these are all just bad apples. "It's not an ongoing problem," Walcott told CBS 2. "Any incident or any allegation is one too many, but it’s not an ongoing problem."
UPDATE APRIL 27: After being held in police custody for over 24 hours, prosecutors declined to press charges against against Abdalla. All charges were dropped and he was released. Details here.
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John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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