Washington Irving High School, pictured in 2016 (Photo by Sabina Mollot)
By Maria Rocha-Buschel
A student arrested for a rape at the Washington Irving campus at 40 Irving Place last December allegedly had sex with another teenage girl without her consent less than four months after he was allowed to return to the school, police sources told Town & Village last week.
Gramercy Arts High School student Jevon Martin, 18, was charged with sexual misconduct and endangering the welfare of a child at the end of April after a 15-year-old student came forward and told police that on March 26, Martin allegedly put his fingers in her genitals. At this point, police said she told him, “No,” and he reportedly proceeded to have sex with her without her consent. Police said that this incident, like the incident in December, took place in a stairwell in the school building.
According to 13th precinct Deputy Inspector Steven Hellman, Martin made bail after his second arrest but was not allowed back in the Washington Irving campus since then and is currently in a program at an Alternative Learning Center while he waits on an expulsion hearing.
Alternative Learning Centers, managed by the Office of Safety and Youth Development in the Department of Education, provide classes for middle and high school students who are on suspension longer than five days.
Martin was originally arrested on December 4 and charged with rape after a 16-year-old student said that he forcibly had sex with her without her consent in a school stairwell. According to the district attorney’s office, Martin pushed the victim to the floor by her waist and allegedly pushed against her face and shoulders while he had sex with her without her consent and while she was telling him to stop.
According to youth officers in the school, Martin was suspended for 10 days after the incident in December but was then allowed back into the building to resume attending classes after the suspension was lifted. Hellman said that the first victim cooperated with the district attorney’s office but did not want to testify at Martin’s suspension hearing because she was not comfortable sitting across from him.
DCPI told Town & Village that Martin was charged with sexual misconduct in connection with the later incident because the victim is younger than 17 but was not charged with rape because “no force was alleged.”
Martin was arrested for the March 26 incident a month later on April 26, but Town & Village did not get information about the arrest at the time because he was charged in the East Harlem facility where the Special Victims Unit is stationed, rather than at the 13th precinct.
The Department of Education could not comment on Martin’s specific case due to federal privacy law for students but a representative for the agency told Town & Village that the Washington Irving Campus is equipped with cameras in the stairwells, although it was unclear if cameras were installed in all stairwells at the time of the alleged incidents.
“Safety is our top priority and we have significantly enhanced security in Washington Irving Campus including working with the NYPD to place additional School Safety Agents in the building, retraining school staff on safety protocols and increased monitoring of hallways and stairwells,” DOE spokesperson Miranda Barbot said. “This troubling incident was treated with the utmost seriousness and was immediately addressed.”
Martin’s attorney did not want to comment on the case.