Teen Claims 92nd St Y Punished Her For Reporting Abuse: Lawsuit

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — A teenager who worked as a summer camp counselor for the 92nd Street Y claims the organization retaliated against her when she reported a coworker for sexual assault, according to a lawsuit filed this week in the state supreme court.

The high-school aged girl, called M.K. in the lawsuit, claims that despite her positive performance reviews at the 92nd Street Y's Camp Yomi as a 2018 counselor-in-training she was not invited back to the staff for the following summer.

M.K., campers and other staff were assigned to a coach bus that would transport them to the Rockland County camp each day for the two-month camp session, according to the lawsuit. It was on the bus where an 18-year-old male counselor "began to direct inappropriate behavior towards her," as detailed in the complaint.

The other counselor would touch M.K.'s breasts and grab her by the stomach, but insisted he was just "playing around," according to the lawsuit. The behavior got worse one day when the counselor sat behind M.K. on the bus and said: "Why do you have such a fat a** today?" and "damn, you have such a chaddy." Chaddy was a reference to M.K.'s backside, according to the lawsuit.

M.K. and other counselors at the camp received sexual harassment training before the camp session began, but the training never covered the subject of one staff member harassing or assaulting another.

"Camp Yomi’s sexual harassment training, developed and presented by Defendant 92Y, did not cover the topic of one staff member directing inappropriate behavior toward another," the lawsuit reads. "Instead it focused on staff members’ obligation to refrain from directing inappropriate behavior toward the young campers."

The harassment culminated in an incident where the 18-year-old counselor pulled down his pants and underwear and forced M.K. to sit on his lap. The act was committed in front of a college-aged bus supervisor, who did nothing to stop it.

M.K. described the violation to a fellow counselor, who told a unit supervisor. The unit supervisor then told Camp Director Ivy Manheim.

Manheim later met with M.K. to discuss the male counselor's actions and "directed M.K. not to discuss the Incident with anyone else, apparently hoping to avert a scandal that would tarnish the reputation of Defendant 92Y’s Camp Yomi," according to the lawsuit.

During the meeting Manheim told M.K. that she was aware of other complaints against the counselor and even kept a notebook documenting his inappropriate behavior. The 18-year-old counselor was fired by Camp Yomi after other counselors, including one of M.K.'s friends, came forward to report more cases of abuse.

M.K. had every intention of returning to Camp Yomi's staff in 2019, but was dismayed when camp staff never reached out to her after the 2018 session ended.

"Defendants made no attempt to contact M.K. or her parents regarding the Incident, preferring

instead to sweep it under the rug," the lawsuit read.

Three of M.K. friends received emails in December asking them to return to Camp Yomi's staff in 2019. M.K., despite nothing but positive performance reviews from the summer before, M.K. never received an email. M.K.'s friend who also reported abuse did not receive an email either, according to the lawsuit.

After reaching out to camp supervisors, M.K. was told to submit a formal application for a 2019 job at Camp Yomi and eventually interview for the position. Other staff members from 2018 were not required to apply or interview for the next summer, despite having worse performance reviews than M.K.

After a January 10 interview with Manheim, M.K. was not offered a job at Camp Yomi for the 2019 summer, according to the lawsuit.

"Despite M.K.’s efforts, Defendants have never provided her with their reasons for not inviting her back to Camp Yomi for the summer of 2019," the lawsuit reads

The lawsuit, which was filed by M.K.'s family, names the 92nd Street Y, Manheim and another camp executive Orlee Levin as defendents. The family is asking a judge to reward them with damages of up to $25,000.

A request for comment from the 92nd Street Y was not immediately returned.

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