Washington Post reports on a lawsuit filed Monday in D.C. Superior Court against a prominent Reform synagogue in D.C. Parents who brought the suit allege that at least seven children in the synagogue's preschool were sexually abused by a teacher for more than a year. The 239-page complaint filed against Washington Hebrew Congregation and Deborah Jensen, its director of early childhood education, does not include the teacher who is the alleged abuser as a defendant. According to the Post:
The lawsuit states that the preschool teacher identified in the complaint was allowed to be alone with students despite city regulations requiring at least two adults to be present with toddlers in licensed child development centers. The school also did not properly train staff on ways to reduce the potential for child sexual abuse and to recognize signs that it may have happened, the lawsuit alleges....
Within a month of the man beginning work at Washington Hebrew, teachers and parents reported to Jensen incidents of inappropriate behavior, according to the lawsuit. The alleged behavior included being late returning students when he was alone with them and not responding to co-workers who were looking for him while he was with students.
The lawsuit states that when an adult reported potential abuse to Jensen, the director said that the person reporting the potential abuse had a “sick mind” and that the teacher would never abuse children. Jensen did not investigate the incidents further, did not restrict the teacher’s access to children and did not report the allegations to city officials, according to the lawsuit.
