Two women affiliated with a Queens-based “tutoring academy” were arrested and charged with endangering the welfare of four students between ages 9 and 11 through vigorous physical punishment, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.
Sun Kyung Park, 33, of Oakland Gardens and Min Kyung Chea, 34, of Little Neck, were accused of putting the students through endurance punishment exercises, withholding food and bathroom privileges among other things to keep them in line, Brown said. Both oversaw the children at Crown Tutoring Academy in Little Neck, which Chea’s husband owns, the DA said.
“The young victims in this case came to the United States from Korea without their parents who paid considerable sums of money to send their children abroad to learn English and obtain an education,” Brown said. “The defendants had an obligation to provide a safe environment for the students and keep them from harm – which they are accused of failing to fulfill in this case by being unable to distinguish between acceptable discipline and physical and mental abuse.”
A criminal complaint against both women outlined an instance in which a 9-year-old was told to hold six to eight books above his head for long periods of time and also forced to put his feet on a chair with his hands on the floor and hold the position for long periods of time. Park also struck the boy in the front of his body with a spiral notebook, forcing him to turn around from the pain before hitting him again in the back, Brown said.
Brown also said Park punished the same boy by having his food and water taken away for days on end and only allowed to eat rice after that as a form of discipline.
On May 21, the boy’s nanny saw several scratches on his right shoulder and marks on his back before realizing what was happening, the DA said.
Chea was also accused of disciplining a 10-year-old boy on several occasions, throwing a shoe box and a backpack at his face, Brown said. Another 10-year-old boy was also forced to hold books on his head around the same time he and another 10-year-old urinated themselves after being barred from using the bathroom for long periods of time, the DA said.
Brown said the students were only allowed to use the bathroom three times a day.
Park was charged with assault and endangering the welfare of a child and faces up to seven years in prison if convicted while Chea was also charged with endangering the welfare of a child and faces up to one, Brown said.
By The Forum staff
