NEW YORK
New York Daily News
BY REUVEN BLAU NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Monday, May 2, 2016
Child advocates in the Jewish community spread a video through social media that appears to show a Hasidic school staffer forcibly touching and kissing a young male student.
The video, which surfaced on Facebook early Sunday and had 20,000 views by Monday afternoon, was prompting calls for a criminal investigation and stern rebukes by advocates who have repeatedly complained about the lack of transparency and oversight at private religious schools.
The yeshiva official works at the United Talmudical Academy in Kiryas Joel, N.Y., according to multiple sources.
The footage from an overhead camera shows the educator sitting directly in front of the young boy, who at one point clasps his hands over his pelvic area. At the end of the encounter, the school staffer opens the desk drawer, gives the child a candy, grabs the boy’s arms and then appears to put them near the man’s crotch, the video shows.
The school worker also seems to be kissing the child on the face for several seconds.
New York State police are looking into the circumstances of the video, a source familiar with the case said.
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