A woman who claims she was sexually assaulted by a janitor while she was a student at the prestigious Horace Mann Elementary School in Binghamton is now filing a lawsuit 33 years later, under New York’s Child Victims Act.
According to the lawsuit, which was filed Friday in the state Supreme Court of Broome County, the abuse happened while she was in first grade back in 1987.
In the lawsuit, the girl said she was approached by a janitorial employee — who was not named in court records — inside the school building, then taken to a house about a block away, where she was allegedly raped and beaten. She claims was sent to a closet at the house before leaving and returning home, the lawsuit said.
After the alleged sexual assault the authorities were not notified.
New York’s Child Victims Act allowed victims to bring legal action against their abusers and the institutions regardless of how long ago the abuse took place or whether criminal charges were ever pursued.
The lawsuit says the woman, who remains anonymous and known as Jane Doe, continues to be plagued by emotional distress from the incident.
The Child Victims Act has allowed this adult victim of childhood sex abuse to seek unspecified damages in an amount to be determined in court proceedings, and alleges that the Binghamton City School District was negligent at the time of the allegations.
