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	Palm Beach Private School Puts Teacher on Leave after Civil Lawsuit Filed By Brian Haas South Florida Sun Sentinel January 22, 2009 http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/sfl-0122-bn-flpallegations,0,7113956.story BOCA RATON - A Palm Beach County private school has put a teacher on administrative leave after he was accused in a lawsuit of molesting a boy at a camp in upstate New York a decade ago. Peter Evans, a middle school teacher at Donna Klein Jewish Academy, west of Boca Raton, is on leave while the school investigates the allegations. Today, in Supreme Court in New York in Nassau County, Cory Legnetti, 21, filed suit accusing Evans, who was a counselor at Camp Chipinaw, of molesting him at the camp from 1998 to 2001. Legnetti, who is stationed in San Diego with the U.S. Coast Guard, is seeking unspecified damages form Evans, the camp and a camp affiliate. Donna Klein Jewish Academy is not named in the suit and there is no allegation that any student at the school was harmed. The school released a brief statement on the lawsuit that read in part: "Donna Klein Jewish Academy has received information that one of its employees is being accused of engaging in inappropriate behavior with a camper of a New York camp nearly 10 years ago. We are in the process of investigating this situation and, consistent with our standard practice whenever we investigate serious allegations, we have placed this teacher on administrative leave. We have not had any situation occur at our school that has given us concern about this teacher or the propriety of his interactions with children." Evans could not be reached for comment, despite attempts by phone. The school was the site of a quick news conference held by Barbara Dorris, victims outreach director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Dorris, standing outside the campus, wanted to meet school officials about the abuse but was refused entry by security. She said she wanted Donna Klein parents to ask their children if they had been victims of molestation. "We don't want him to quietly move from school to school," Dorris said. "We don't want anyone else to suffer. If your children have been around Peter Evans, you need to talk with them." Camp Chipinaw released a statement this afternoon expressing shock about the allegations and lawsuit. The statement said that the camp has an extensive vetting process to keep children safe and officials were never told of any allegations against Evans. "We take this matter very seriously and will be initiating our own investigation of the allegations," the statement read.
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