The Long Island family suing a teacher for forcing their daughter to use male pronouns claims the school received several complaints about the teacher, but just moved her to different classrooms — like “moving a priest around from church to church who’s abusing children,” their attorney said.
Debra Rosenquist, a 5th grade teacher at Terryville Road Elementary School in Port Jefferson Station, is accused of confusing the 9-year-old girl about her gender identity to the point where she had suicidal thoughts.
During a hearing on Wednesday, the family’s lawyer, Debra Wabnik, claimed that the school declined to take any meaningful action after receiving several complaints about Rosenquist and should bear responsibility for the child’s emotional trauma.
“At the time we prepared this complaint we did not have the benefit of the school board inquiry where parents and students who similarly had issues, major issues, including bullying and improper behavior by this teacher,” Wabnik said, referring to the contentious Comsewogue School District board meeting in March.
During the meeting, one student claimed that Rosenquist called her students “little sexist children” when the boys and girls were hanging out separately.
“The issues were the same,” Wabnik told Judge C. Stephen Hackeling at court in Riverhead. “…That’s the basis for that claim and I wish I had all that information when at the time this was drafted. Because it’s significant that she’s not the first one.”
The school district, she said, has “direct liability in the case.”
“They knew this teacher was a problem for years and years. They did not monitor her. They did not supervise her. They received complaints from multiple students. They had bullying and improper behavior,” she said. “They moved her from one classroom to another, one grade to another — and ultimately my client is the one who paid the price for that.
“It’s the equivalent of moving a priest around from church to church who’s abusing children and it has to stop,” Wabnik said.
The lawsuit, filed in January in Suffolk County, alleges that Rosenquist started referring to the young girl — referred to in court papers as A.V. — as Leo and using opposite-gender pronouns at the beginning of the 2021-’22 school year.
In January 2022, the girl’s parents received an alarming call from the school principal — A.V. had drawn a picture of a girl, along with the phrases, “I wanna kill myself” and “I feel sad like a lot,” the filing claims.
The parents also learned that their daughter had even met with the school psychologist, telling the mental health worker that she “was confused about her gender identity,” the court papers say.
In a later call with Rosenquist that month, the parents were asked for the first time for permission to call her daughter by a different name and pronouns, although she had called the girl Leo for months.
A.V. was placed in a different classroom, but became the victim of bullying from other students as a result. Rosenquist was also moved to teach younger students, Wabnik said.
The girl’s family accused the school of negligence in failing to properly monitor Rosenquist’s classroom and train and supervise staff.
The whole ordeal has caused A.V. to suffer “humiliation,” “anxiety,” “emotional pain” and “trauma.” And the family has had to pay for psychological treatment and lawyers fees.
The family is suing for unspecified damages.
The judge on Wednesday shot down Comsewogue School District’s motion to dismiss the case and not allow the A.V.’s parents to continue to pursue the case under pseudonym. The judge also denied a motion by the school to dismiss the third charge which was “infliction of emotional distress.”
The Post has reached out to the school district about Rosenquist’s employment status. Her name does not appear in Terryville Road Elementary School’s online staff directory.