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Student accused of assaulting
18-year-old girl July 7,
2007
MOUNT PLEASANT, N.Y. (AP) _ A male
resident of a school for troubled adolescents has been arrested on
charges he sexually assaulted an 18-year-old female student, police
said.
Authorities said the boy threatened
the girl with a lighter, claiming he would set her on fire unless
she went with him to the woods on the campus of the Pleasantville
Cottage School, where the attack occurred.
The suspect, a Guatemalan native
with no family ties in the U.S., was placed in the residential
treatment center after he was found wandering the streets of New
York City, officials said. The accused attacker claimed to be 15,
but police say they believe he may be older; Westchester County
officials were working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to
try and confirm his age and identity.
The attack occurred Thursday
evening, Mount Pleasant police spokesman Lt. Brian Finely said. The
girl reported the incident to school staff, who called police. The
boy was being held at the Woodfield Cottage Detention Center. It was
not clear if he had a lawyer.
Jane Barowitz, spokeswoman for the
Jewish Child Care Association, which oversees the Pleasantville
Cottage School, said she was distressed by the suspected incident.
"We have notified the police and
are cooperating fully in the investigation. Our primary concern is
the safety of the child, staff and community," she said.
The school has a troubled history.
In 2002, violence erupted there when eight girls aged 15 and 16 beat
and burned a counselor. The counselor spent several days in a
hospital and the girls were sentenced to prison terms ranging from
one to 10 years.
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