Yeshiva University High School students whose sexual abuse was covered up by administration want changes to statute of limitations law

Yeshiva University High School students whose sexual abuse was covered up by administration want changes to statute of limitations law
by Michael O’keeffe  NEW YORK DAILY NEWS  Wednesday, March 30, 2016

They got an apology, but they never got justice.

Thirty-four former students at the prestigious Yeshiva University High School claimed in a bombshell $680 million lawsuit that administrators had covered up abuse for decades.....

A federal judge tossed the lawsuit in 2014 — not because the plaintiffs’ claims against the school in Washington Heights were without merit, but because of a persistent obstacle to justice for child victims of sexual abuse in New York State. The statute of limitations had expired.

“We lost for one reason, and one reason only,” said Barry Singer, one of the plaintiffs in the case. “(The school) disputed none of our allegations and we still lost. The only thing to do now is to change the statute of limitations. The statute of limitations protects institutions; it does not protect children.”

New York’s statute of limitations bars child victims from pursuing criminal charges or civil litigation after their 23rd birthday.

Some of the accusers said administrator Rabbi George Finkelstein targeted them because they were children of Holocaust survivors. He begged the victims not to add to their parents’ suffering by reporting his abuse of students.

In a shocking December 2012 story by The Forward reporter Paul Berger, former Yeshiva University President Norman Lamm acknowledged he failed to notify authorities after students told him they had been sexually abused at the school. School officials quickly offered what they called a “profound apology.”.... http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/abused-yeshiva-university-h-s-students-change-law-article-1.2583374