{"id":366520,"date":"2026-10-07T03:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T03:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/366520\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T03:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T03:34:08","slug":"trump-admin-launches-federal-probe-into-alleged-widespread-staff-on-student-sexual-misconduct-at-nyc-public-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/366520\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump admin launches federal probe into alleged widespread \u2018staff-on-student\u2019 sexual misconduct at NYC public schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Department of Education on Tuesday announced it\u2019s launching a federal investigation into allegations of widespread \u201cstaff-on-student\u201d sexual misconduct at New York City public schools<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The investigation, led by the department\u2019s Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey, will seek to determine whether the district\u2019s handling of sexual harassment and assault claims<\/a> against teachers, administrators, and other school personnel violated federal Title IX rules \u2013 including by being swept under the rug.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the reports indicate that there have been almost 2,000 instances in New York City where school staff have engaged in sexual misconduct with students,\u201d Richey said in an interview with \u201cCats and Cosby Show\u201d hosts <\/a>John Catsimatidis and Rita Cosby.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are just not going to allow school staff to engage in this type of abuse,\u201d the assistant secretary continued. \u201cWe are taking a hard stance against this.\u201c<\/p>\n

NYC public schools could lose federal funds if the district does not come into compliance with Title IX. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Richey called the allegations against New York City\u2019s Department of Education<\/a> \u201csystemic and disturbing\u201d and suggested the district may be \u201cenabling child abuse in schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trump administration official said many of the complaints have come from \u201cscared parents,\u201d who believe \u201csomething may be going on with their child,\u201d while others have been leveled by school staff.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Department of Education aims to find out whether New York City allowed district employees suspected of sexual misconduct to evade punishment and resign, or possibly remain on the job amid complaints.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The assistant secretary of the Department of Education said some 2,000 complaints related to sexual misconduct at NYC public schools have been submitted. Helayne Seidman<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do New York City public schools know? Are they handling these complaints appropriately? Are they doing what they are legally required to do to protect students in New York City public schools?\u201d Richey said of the questions her office is seeking answers from the district. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to hold the school district accountable for any misconduct and for any failure to respond the way that they are required to respond under federal law.\u201c<\/p>\n

Richey warned that if the district is not in compliance with Title IX rules, it risks losing federal funding.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has opened additional investigations into school districts in California, Georgia, North Carolina, Missouri, Texas, and Virginia, to determine whether they failed to respond as required to reports of staff-on-student sexual misconduct allegations. Bonnie Cash \/ Pool via CNP \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will make a determination about whether New York City public schools have complied with federal law,\u201d she explained, \u201cand if they haven\u2019t, we will come up with specific steps that they have to take in order to come into compliance.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then, New York public schools have a decision to make. They either come to compliance or they risk losing federal funds for failure to comply.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New York City Department of Education did not immediately respond to The Post\u2019s request for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Department of Education on Tuesday announced it\u2019s launching a federal investigation into allegations of widespread \u201cstaff-on-student\u201d sexual…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366521,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4337,67,57,9,24,56,63,65,64,87,209,3019,3644,15766,58],"class_list":["post-366520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-department-of-education","tag-education","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-politics","tag-public-schools","tag-sexual-assault","tag-sexual-harassment","tag-sexual-misconduct","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366520","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=366520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}