Abused girl's parents suing Archdiocese

The parents of a Staten Island girl who was sexually abused by her parochial-school gym teacher have filed a lawsuit against the woman and the Archdiocese of New York.

In court papers filed Tuesday in state Supreme Court, Manhattan, the parents, seeking unspecified damages, charged that as a result of the sexual activity imposed last year on their daughter, now 13, the girl became suicidal and still suffers from "severe emotional shock, trauma, embarrassment, anxiety and other psychological injuries."

Lynn Saunders, who was a gym and music teacher at St. Paul's School in New Brighton, was arrested on March 2, 2005, and charged with second-degree sex abuse and endangering the welfare of a child.

Ms. Saunders pleaded guilty to the sex abuse charge, admitting that on several dates in February 2005 she had touched the girl's breasts and genital area. The woman was sentenced to three years' probation and made to register as a sex offender.

The girl's father has since moved his family from New Brighton to distance his daughter from her former teacher, whom he accused of deceiving the whole family.

"I'm still outraged," he said. "She came to our house, she ate, she broke bread with us, she visited our church. ... [But] she betrayed that trust and she just robbed something from my daughter, and no one can replace that."

Speaking of his daughter, who now attends public school, the father said, "She's struggling to adjust."

He claimed that officials at St. Paul's School have done nothing to comfort the family: "We thought maybe the school would reach out to us and offer counseling or show some sort of concern, [but] they turned their back on us."

At her 2005 trial in Stapleton Criminal Court, Ms. Saunders, a former basketball star at the College of Staten Island, admitted to starting a relationship with the girl.

It was brought out in court that she treated the girl often to basketball games, movies, church events and restaurants, and, on at least one occasion, took her home to bed and molested her through her clothes.

At one point during the relationship Ms. Saunders, now 39, sent the pre-teen girl cell-phone text messages reading "I miss you madly" and "I want to be with you in a way that's unacceptable," according to court papers from the criminal trial.

When the girl's parents discovered the text messages -- the mother had said Ms. Saunders sometimes would contact her daughter 30 times a day -- they went to police.

A lawyer for the girl's family, William J. Unroch, accused the school and, by extension, the Archdiocese, of failing to act upon a series of warning signs that Ms. Saunders was acting inappropriately with students.

Among the red flags, he said, the school's principal once witnessed children seated on Ms. Saunders' lap, and students were known to cut class in order to hang out in the gymnasium with her.

But Archdiocese spokesman Joseph Zwilling said officials at St. Paul's "had absolutely no notice" that Ms. Saunders was molesting the child.

When the teacher was arrested, he said, she was told not to return and fired the next day.

Zwilling said letters were sent immediately to parents advising them to communicate with the school if they had concerns. He said the school also had counselors in to speak to parents and students.

Unroch countered that the letters sent out March 10, 2005 -- a copy of which he provided to the Advance -- made no mention of what Ms. Saunders had been arrested for and, in fact, misled parents by stating that the allegations against her "do not involve her professional responsibilities at the school."

"Well, if she molested a 12-year-old who was her student, how the hell is that not [related to her responsibilities]?" asked Unroch. "What they tried to do was cover it up."

Ms. Saunders could not be reached for comment yesterday.

TAG: ASSOCIATED PRESS material was used in this report.

Yoav Gonen is a news reporter for the Advance. He may be reached at gonen@siadvance.com.