Foster Care
‘Predators go where the prey is’: Lawsuits describe abuse in foster care
ALBANY — In the early 1980s, David Burgos was sent to Pleasantville Cottage School, a group home for troubled youth in Westchester County. Soon after his arrival, an assistant teacher asked him to stay after class to clean the blackboards.
The teacher sexually abused him, Burgos said in an interview. He never actually cleaned the blackboard, but no one ever said anything. “He told me that he had the power of whether I go home to my mother or not,” Burgos said. According to a lawsuit Burgos filed last week, he was 13 when the abuse occurred.
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