IRVINGTON (NY)
Hudson Independent

October 28, 2020

By Rick Pez­zullo

Ten for­mer res­i­dents of The Chil­dren’s Vil­lage res­i­den­tial treat­ment cen­ter in Dobbs Ferry have taken le­gal ac­tion, ac­cus­ing staff, ad­min­is­tra­tors and older res­i­dents at the home for trou­bled boys of sex­ual and phys­i­cal abuse over a 25-year pe­riod.

The vic­tims, who were all emo­tion­ally dis­turbed young boys when they were placed at the Chil­dren’s Vil­lage by courts or child wel­fare agen­cies, al­lege in law­suits they were phys­i­cally bru­tal­ized, raped, and hu­mil­i­ated by older res­i­dents, while sim­i­lar sex­ual abuse was per­pe­trated by staff, in­clud­ing teacher aides, coun­sel­lors, and a for­mer ex­ec­u­tive di­rec­tor.

When the boys com­plained to so­cial work­ers or other staff about the phys­i­cal and sex­ual abuse, they al­lege were ei­ther ig­nored or threat­ened with vi­o­lence.

“These chil­dren were typ­i­cally brought to The Chil­dren’s Vil­lage to re­move them from abu­sive or ne­glect­ful con­di­tions in their fam­i­lies’ homes with the…