The Board of Ed is probing charges that a Queens school official did nothing after a 12-year-old girl was groped by a wolf pack of boys in a terrifying imitation of the Central Park wilding incident.
“We are taking this very, very seriously,” board spokeswoman Margie Feinberg said yesterday. “Everything is being investigated. No stone will be left unturned.”
Seven boys, ages 12 and 13, were arrested Tuesday night in the shocking incident, which occurred that morning at IS 180 in the Rockaways.
The victim, a sixth-grader, filed a police complaint saying she was in the schoolyard when a boy she knew called her over.
She said the boy was joined by six others and they turned her upside down, tried to remove her blouse and fondled her breasts, buttocks and vagina over her clothes.
The boys made a reference to the June 11 wilding incident, in which as many as 50 men groped 53 women in 30 attacks in the southern end of Central Park.
Meanwhile, a ninth person was indicted in the park attacks yesterday – Lonnie Hopson, 18, of Queens. Hopson, who is being held on $10,000 bail, is accused of grabbing the buttocks of three women and the bra strap of a fourth.
Also, five more suspects surrendered, bringing to 25 the number under arrest.
In the IS 180 incident, the boys ran off when two of the victim’s friends screamed.
The girls told a 100th Precinct cop who works at the school that the boys had picked on them – but didn’t mention the sexual attack.
The cop told the girls to go to the dean of students.
In her complaint, the victim said the dean told her to write down everything that happened and, when she finished, told her to go back to class and did nothing.
When the girl got home, she told her mother, who took her to the 100th Precinct station house to file a complaint. The boys were quickly arrested and charged with sexual abuse. Teachers union spokesman Ron Davis said that after talking to the victim, the dean went to break up a fight and didn’t review the girl’s written statement until the next day.
“There was a lapse in judgment in not immediately reviewing the complaint,” Davis said. The dean “admitted she should have reviewed the complaint sooner. I’m sure there will be some disciplinary action.”
Students at the junior high school said similar incidents had happened before and praised the victim for coming forward.
“It’s not the first time it’s happened. They should be arrested,” said Janny, an eighth-grader.
“Girls are scared to report it. This girl wasn’t. Power to her,” Janny added. “It’s good to get it out in the open because it can happen to anyone.”
Chris, an eighth-grader, said the boys who staged the attack were bullies.
“I’ve seen them pick on a lot of little people,” he said.
Parents were stunned.
“I didn’t hear anything about it,” said Mary Jones, whose 11-year-old daughter, Crystal, is also a sixth-grader at IS 180. “It’s a bad situation. We might need more monitors.”