Claims of abuse in lawsuit against St. Francis Prep

NEW YORK
New York Daily News

The suit claims St. Francis Prep officials had received numerous complaints that assistant football coach Robert Stenger, who also taught social studies, had sexually and physically abused boys by 1985 but was permitted to continue to work closely with students.

BY MICHAEL O’KEEFFE / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

THURSDAY, JUNE 13, 2013

Officials at St. Francis Prep ignored sexual and physical abuse by a longtime assistant football coach, according to a lawsuit filed against the Queens school on behalf of a former teacher and two ex-students in Brooklyn federal court on Wednesday.

The suit claims St. Francis Prep officials had received numerous complaints that assistant football coach Robert Stenger, who also taught social studies, had sexually and physically abused boys by 1985 but was permitted to continue to work closely with students. Plaintiff Mark Evangelista claims Stenger hit him in the face “with great force” without provocation before a history class in 1985.

Evangelista, who says he graduated from St. Francis Prep in 1986, told the Daily News that teachers would joke about how Stenger — who died in 2006 — would leer at freshman football players in the locker room.

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