NEW YORK
Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin via PressConnects.com
August 31, 2020
By Anthony Borrelli
A teacher and a janitor who worked in the Chenango Forks Central School District during the 1980s are accused in a Child Victims Act lawsuit of separate instances of sexual misconduct against a female student.
The complaint also claims a pastor at the girl’s church tried to persuade her to drop her accusation against the janitor, who attended the same church, saying her accusation “could not be true.”
A lawsuit filed Aug. 15 in the state Supreme Court of Broome County on behalf of a woman who was about 17 when she attended high school at Chenango Forks in 1986, claims her social studies teacher, Richard Russ, engaged in sexual misconduct against her. It allegedly began after he’d invite her to his classroom for study halls or to work on projects after school.
Much like other lawsuits under the Child Victims Act, the Aug. 15 complaint argues the defendants, in this case the school district and the church, should’ve taken action once told about alleged sexual misconduct. The lawsuit, which names the Chenango Forks Central School District and Central Baptist Church as defendants, argues that didn’t happen.
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