BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Niagara Falls City School District is named in two separate, recently filed lawsuits under New York State’s Child Victims Act. Both claim abuse by former music teachers.
In one case, a 37-year-old Erie County woman alleges that while attending Gaskill Middle School her band teacher, Philip R. Sims, sexually abused her during instructional periods within the school.
The lawsuit further alleges the plaintiff’s mother notified the school district of the alleged abuse, but that it failed to report the allegations to police or complete a written report as required whenever allegations of abuse in an educational setting are alleged.
In court papers, it is stated that prior to teaching at Gaskill, Sims also taught at Hyde Park Elementary school and LaSalle High School.
The suit filed on the woman’s behalf also names the Niagara Wheatfield School District as a defendant.
It alleges that Sims taught band there until he was fired in 1987 amid “awareness and/or strong suspicion” that he had engaged with an inappropriate relationship with a student there, including “non-consensual sexual contact with a minor”.
Sims, according to the lawsuit, was then hired to teach in Niagara Falls.
The lawsuit contends that despite having “credible allegations of sexual abuse by Sims prior to his application for employment with the Niagara Falls City School District”, Niagara Wheatfield failed to disclose this “in violation of statutory and common law obligations.” It further alleges that Niagara Falls failed to conduct adequate background checks before hiring Sims
Several years after the plaintiff alleges that Sims sexually abused her, Sims was charged criminally in a 2004 case where he pleaded guilty to Sodomy in the Second Degree admitting that in 2001 he engaged in sexual contact with someone he knew to be under the age of 15. He served several months in jail and was subsequently listed on the sex offender registry. The victim in that case has also filed a suit under the Child Victim’s Act.
In another lawsuit naming the Niagara Falls City School District, the plaintiff accuses Patrick Kuciewski, a former band teacher in Niagara Falls schools who later became a school principal, of sexually abusing her when she was a young teen. Here again, the lawsuit accuses the district of ignoring warning signs that Kuciewski posed a risk to children.
The plaintiff alleges the abuse occurred in the late 1990s. She is the second plaintiff to file a suit against the school district which names Kuciewski as the perpetrator.
Kuciewski went on to work in the district for 31 years until 2013, when he became the subject of a highly publicized criminal probe regarding allegations against him. Kuciewski, however, was never criminally charged due to the statute of limitations having run out. He left the district a short time later.
The Child Victims Act, passed by the state legislature and signed by the governor last year, gives adult victims of child sex abuse until next September to bring civil suits against their alleged abusers, although there has been talk of extending the window.
During the time frame set forth in the legislation, plaintiffs can file suit against their alleged abusers and the institutions they worked for no matter how old they are or how long ago the abuse happened.
