Suspicion: School janitor sexually assaulted 1st grader

Boy told classmate janitor offered him candy, then touched his body and kissed him; parents of students at school livid, say principal should have informed them of incident sooner

Raanan Ben-Zur|Published: 04.09.13 , 22:51

The father of a first-grader at a public school in Ramat Hasharon filed a police complaint claiming his son was sexually assaulted before the Passover holiday by a janitor at the school.

Police have launched an investigation into the allegations, while the janitor has been dismissed by the school.

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The alleged incident took place before the Passover vacation, and many parents of children who attend the school expressed their anger over the school principal's decision not to report the incident until the beginning of the week.

According to what is know so far, the student told a classmate that the janitor offered him candy, and then led him to one of the rooms in the school, where he touched his body and kissed him. The classmate told her parents, who informed the boy's parents of the incident.

A parent of a student who attends the school told Ynet that the principal "should not have tried to hide the incident from the parents. On the contrary, she should have informed us so we would be alert. What happened was a fiasco."

The Education Ministry said the principal "acted appropriately and reported the alleged incident to a welfare officer, the police and the municipality as soon as she heard about it. Ministry guidelines do not obligate school management to inform all the parents of such incidents."