LI Woman Claims Former Music Teacher Raped Her In 1970s

GREENLAWN, NY — A Long Island woman says her former teacher raped her after years of abuse, according to a lawsuit. The woman, 58, is suing her former seventh-grade music teacher, a man who she says taught at Oldfield Middle School in Greenlawn.

The woman said when she was young, school staff and district officials worked together to hide knowledge of the teacher abusing her.

The lawsuit was filed Feb. 3 under New York’s recently-enacted Child Victims Act and asserts claims of sexual battery, negligence, breach of fiduciary duty and emotional distress.

Dr. Francesco Ianni, superintendent of Harborfields School District, told Patch the district cannot comment on matters of litigation.

The lawsuit accuses the music teacher of sexual abuse against her, culminating in a rape when she was in 10th grade in 1977.

Following years of back rubs, massages and lewd photographs, the teacher eventually asked her to meet him at his mother's house, her lawyers said.

"[Her] sexual naiveté, young age, and inexperience did not stop [the teacher] from raping the girl once he had her alone at his mother’s house," the lawsuit states. "Thus, Plaintiff’s first sexual experience was a criminal act committed by a man more than twice her age."

This came on the heels of abuse by the music teacher dating back to the woman's middle school days, where the music teacher served as her instructor, according to the lawsuit.

Music quickly became a core part of the woman's life after she began playing piano at the age of 7, and she hoped to one day play professionally, according to the lawsuit. When she became a seventh grader in 1974, the teacher was a yearbook club adviser, a club of which she was a member of, as well as a choral director, she said.

The lawsuit described the teacher as "a constant, lurking, presence" in the hallways of the department in-between classes and after school, often with his camera around his neck and socializing with students, "particularly with young girls who he was known often to have in his classroom and office." It didn't take long before the teacher noticed her and started calling her by her maiden name, the lawsuit says. The teacher began using her as an accompanist, or a person who provides musical assistance to another musician or singer, once he found out she played piano, according to lawyers.

The teacher then began grooming her for abuse, the lawsuit says. He started by appealing to her love of music, the woman says, by saying, "Hey, come in here, I have something I want to play for you." He would then play a new album by a popular artist at the time, lawyers said. From the 7th grader’s perspective, this was high praise from a music teacher who had the reputation among students for being "cool," the woman said.

The teacher would help her pick a song he would say suits her voice if she was auditioning for a play and say she was an excellent sight reader of music, the lawsuit says. But the teacher also complimented her clothes and how good they made her look while criticizing other female students' bodies, the woman said. She said she was flattered that "the cool teacher" was telling her that she was cool and other girls were not.

"More than once, he told her 'I had a dream about you last night, naked on a couch with nothing but black velvet and white lace, that’s how I want to photograph you,'" the lawsuit states. The woman was not the only student the teacher said this to, she says.

It evolved into more subtle forms of sexual abuse involving inappropriate touching. Eventually, the teacher induced her to allow him to massage her, the lawsuit says.

When she reached 10th grade in 1977 at the age of 15, she enrolled at Harborfields High School, but the abuse in the teacher's office at Oldfield Middle School continued, the lawsuit said. It was around that time the teacher raped her at his mother's house, the lawsuit claims.

Things continued though, according to the lawsuit.

"Despite the trauma of this abuse, the dependency [the teacher] had created in [the woman] was so strong that she submitted to the abuse in his office throughout the remainder of 10th grade, seeking his continuing praise for her appearance, her musicianship, and her academics," the lawyers said.

The lawsuit says Harborfields Central School District allowed a culture of sexual abuse in which it was acceptable for teachers to sexually abuse students.

Rumors of the teacher's abuse of other female students at the school were common, and he openly discussed the physical attributes of those he found attractive, the lawyers said. He also openly held in his office photographs of underage women in various states of undress, always making sure to describe them as "art," according to the lawsuit. At least two other former students said the teacher photographed them when they were minors, with at least one expressing her fear of what he has done with those pictures, the lawsuit said.

When the woman was in ninth grade, one of the district's faculty members who happened to be the teacher's wife unexpectedly entered the music teacher's office after he coaxed her into massaging him, according to the lawsuit. The woman said the wife's only response to seeing a ninth grader massaging a teacher behind a closed door was angrily saying, "I would like to speak to my husband privately." No report was made to law enforcement or the district, and the teacher was neither disciplined or investigated, the lawsuit said.

The woman said she told "another agent of defendants" about the teacher's behavior early in the period of abuse, but no action was taken in response. As a result, the massages continued on a weekly basis leading up to and even after the teacher raped her when she was in 10th grade, the lawsuit claims.

According to the lawyers, other faculty members at the time described the teacher as "sleazy" and "liking young girls, not women."

The lawsuit also alleges that the music teacher was "far from the only faculty member whose sexual predation of students was enabled" by the district and schools within it. Lawyers say it was common knowledge that an English teacher at the junior high school was dating underage female high school students, and the track coach was known to have inappropriate relationships with a different female student every year.

When the woman was in 11th grade, a science teacher slid his hand under her rear while she was sitting on a window ledge, the lawsuit says. She immediately reported the science teacher, but was told in response that the science teacher didn't mean anything by it and probably didn't realize what he was doing, according to her lawyers.

Staff and faculty members in the district held positions of trust, respect and allegiance among the woman and everyone else, the lawyers said.

The lawsuit says that the district's employment of the music teacher at Oldfield Middle School implied to students, their families and the general public that he did not pose a threat to children, did not have a history of child molestation, and the district was unaware of his history of sexually abusing children or that he was a danger to them. The lawsuit added that the defendants knew, should have known, and should currently know that "employing child rapists like [the music teacher] and giving them unchecked access to children and the public at large was an extremely risky practice and was likely to expose the public to the threat of criminal activity. "

The lawyers claim the defendants knowingly hid the music teacher's history of sexual abuse from the public and failed to warn it of the risk posed by his access to children.

Another woman told Patch she filed a lawsuit against the school district and same teacher in August 2019.

The lawsuit was filed against the music teacher, Harborfields Central School District, the district's Board of Education, Oldfield Middle School, Harborfields High School and Does 1-10: people or business/corporate entities whose names the woman doesn't know. She is represented by Daniel Lapinski of Motley Rice LLC, a New York City-based law firm, Tim Hale of Nye, Stirling, Hale & Miller LLP in California, Benjamin J. Sweet of The Sweet Law Firm in Pennsylvania and Michaela Wallin of Berger Montague in New York.