{"id":286612,"date":"2026-07-04T12:41:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T12:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/286612\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T12:41:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T12:41:11","slug":"brooklyn-college-physician-assistant-allegedly-sexually-harassed-female-students-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/286612\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn College physician assistant allegedly sexually harassed female students: lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A physician assistant <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/01\/20\/us-news\/woke-brooklyn-college-course-lectures-students-about-weaponizing-whiteness-requires-buzzfeed-privilege-quiz\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">at Brooklyn College\u2019s<\/a> health clinic groped female students \u2014 but complaints were brushed off by his supervisor, a lawsuit alleges.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/06\/20\/us-news\/taxpayer-funded-cuny-criminal-justice-college-welcomes-alleged-pervs-pimps-to-teach-future-cops-and-lawyers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Former CUNY<\/a> film student Regina Patino claimed she felt violated and uncomfortable each time she was treated by an excessively touchy Gary Giardina at the school\u2019s clinic on several occasions between 2022 to 2024, according a lawsuit filed Monday in Brooklyn Supreme Court.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>She claimed he guided her to his office by her lower back, slid his hand up her thigh and pressed his cheek against hers during uncomfortable examinations.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49707602;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39880302\" width=\"883\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026-nyc-mayor-zorhan-mamdani-118571427.jpg\" alt=\"A picture of building at Brooklyn College with the school's name written in white on a black wall. \" class=\"wp-image-39880302\"  \/>A former student at Brooklyn College accused one of its health clinic\u2019s physician assistants of sexual harassment.  Paul Martinka<\/p>\n<p>When Patino, 26, asked to see a female physician instead of Giardina, the health clinic\u2019s then-director Ilene Tannenbaum pulled her aside and asked why.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Patino alleged that Giardina, 78, was \u201cexcessively warm\u201d towards her \u2013 and Tannenbaum told her she wasn\u2019t the only one to say that.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But Tannenbaum insisted such complaints weren\u2019t a problem because \u201che is an older man and has no interest in young girls like you,\u201d according to the suit.<\/p>\n<p>Patino, who has since graduated, is demanding unspecified damages.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.5585997;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39880299\" width=\"920\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2011-photo-people-walk-campus-133152359.jpg\" alt=\"Students walk on campus outside at Brooklyn College. \" class=\"wp-image-39880299\"  \/>The college declined to comment on the situation amid ongoing litigation.  AP<\/p>\n<p>Tannenbaum, a nurse practitioner, retired from the clinic at the 2024 school year after 30 years, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/vanguard.blog.brooklyn.edu\/2024\/05\/bcs-health-clinic-director-retires-after-30-years-of-service\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">The Brooklyn College Vanguard<\/a>, but Giardina still works there.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/01\/20\/us-news\/woke-brooklyn-college-course-lectures-students-about-weaponizing-whiteness-requires-buzzfeed-privilege-quiz\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brooklyn College <\/a>takes all reports and allegations of misconduct seriously and is committed to maintaining a safe, respectful, and supportive environment. Because this is a pending legal matter, the college is unable to comment further,\u201d a college spokesperson told The Post.<\/p>\n<p>CUNY, Giardina and Tannenbaum did not return requests for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A physician assistant at Brooklyn College\u2019s health clinic groped female students \u2014 but complaints were brushed off by&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286613,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,6373,100,99,2397,3100,57,9,24,63,3644,58],"class_list":["post-286612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-college","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-cuny","tag-lawsuit","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-sexual-harassment","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}