Teacher Gets Fired from Queens Yeshiva Because She Reported the Sexual Abuse of a Child

 

Queens Yeshiva Teacher Witnesses Sexual Abuse of Kindergarten Boy; Fired for Reporting Incident

Edited by: TJVNews.com

As the issue of child sexual abuse at the hands of educators continues to dominate the headlines, it was recently reported by the New York Post that a lawsuit indicates that a teacher at a Queens yeshiva allegedly caught a substitute teacher groping a boy of kindergarten age.

The teacher, Roza Tachalov, who teaches Hebrew at Yeshiva Sha’arei Zion Elementary School in Forest Hills, said in the suit that she was condemned for “making up stories” when she reported the abuse to school authorities.

Having taught at the Queens yeshiva for nine years, in January 2021, Tachalov witnessed the alleged abuse, according to her Brooklyn Federal Court filing against the school, as was reported by the Post.

In the litigation that she filed, Tachalov said that when she witnessed the incident, students were watching a movie when she saw the substitute with “a kindergarten student sitting on his lap and … touching the child in an inappropriate manner, “ according to the Post report.

As Tachalov fled the classroom on that January day in 2021, the Post reported that the substitute put the child down. Later, Tachalov confirmed what she witnessed through a review of video surveillance. The Post reported that Rabbi Ephraim ben Mordechai refused to watch the video footage and accused Tachalov of mendacious claims and said she was attempting to “destroy” his position with the school board.

Tachalov was later terminated from her teaching position at the yeshiva, according to the Post report. Leaders at the yeshiva in Forest Hills has vowed to inform the parents of the boy in question but did not do so, the report indicated.

The NYPD said it has no reports of the incident, as was reported by the Post.

“We’ll let the courts decide the baseless nature of these charges,” Michael Miranda, a lawyer for the yeshiva, told the Post.