A Stuyvesant student was assaulted and robbed outside of the school on Wednesday, November 21 around 4:15 p.m. The assailants have not been identified but, according to the victim, they were all Stuyvesant students.
The victim, a freshman, was not seriously injured. He said the assailants took him away from College Convenience, the convenience store on Chambers Street, to a remote place about 10 blocks north.
“I didn’t know where I was,” the victim, whose name is being withheld, said.
Ten boys ganged up on him and demanded money. “They said that I owed them money. I didn’t owe them anything,” the victim said. Two of the youth proceeded to hit him and rob him of valuables. “I was kicked and punched in the jaw, stomach and back,” he said. “They took my Sidekick [cell phone], wallet with $150 in it, Hot Shot [North Face book bag] and iPod Nano.”
The victim said he was carrying that amount of cash because he was originally headed to buy a pair of sneakers.
One of the youth in the group helped him after the crime occurred. The victim said, “He wasn’t one of the guys who hit me. He made sure I was not seriously hurt, and then he escorted me to the subway and made sure I got on the train safely.” The student who helped declined to comment and asked to remain anonymous.
The victim went to the police, but did not file a report. “The cops couldn’t do anything, it was useless,” the victim said, because he could not originally identify the assailants.
He reported the incident to the deans who said they would look into it. The dean assigned to the case declined to comment.
The victim later identified the two Stuyvesant students who hit him as a sophomore and a junior whose names are being withheld. “The deans told me that the investigation was being handed over to the [Department of Education (DOE)],” the victim said.
“It is under investigation,” Principal Stanley Teitel said.
The Stuyvesant administration does not have a definitive policy on out-of-school-related incidents. “Technically, it is out of my jurisdiction, but if [the incident] involved only Stuyvesant students, I would take action,” said Teitel before the investigation was turned over to the DOE.
“Suspension, expulsion, revoking after-school activities would be some options. If it involves people other than Stuyvesant students, I cannot do anything about it. It becomes a police matter,” Teitel said.
According to DOE Chancellor Regulation A-443, disciplinary procedures and specifically the suspension process can be turned over to the regional superintendent when the student “engages in behavior […] which presents a clear and present danger to […] other students.”
The assault came following a string of reported attacks by non-Stuyvesant youth on Stuyvesant students near the school. There is no indication that the attacks are related.
Two youths assaulted a Stuyvesant student while another youth filmed the incident with his camera phone on Tuesday, September 25.
Senior Tim Mullen was assaulted and injured outside the school, though nothing was stolen, on Wednesday, October 3.
Stuyvesant freshmen Keiji Drysdale and Ming Li were assaulted in Battery Park on Friday, October 26 by three youths. The youths identified themselves to a Stuyvesant student bystander as High School of Economics and Finance students.
Several students playing chess in Battery Park were assaulted on Monday, November 5.
In response to the attacks, Teitel requested an increased police presence on Chambers Street in early October. “When I made the request, I was told that the presence occurs only if police are not called to other things going on in the area,” he said. “So some days you see the presence of police officers and other days you don’t.”
A police officer from the First Precinct who was present at the intersection of Chambers Street and Greenwich Street said he was in that position only because the school crossing guard was not available. He was unaware of an increased presence on Chambers Street.
Since the city police do not have official jurisdiction in the parks, Teitel contacted the Battery Park Conservancy and asked for a greater park ranger presence in the area around Stuyvesant.