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Queens tutoring school employees arrested on charges of child assault

August 8, 2014

Employees of a Queens tutoring school recently investigated for alleged assault on children were arrested Wednesday, police said.

Crown Academy, a tutoring school in the Little Neck neighborhood, doubles as a homestay program for elementary and middle school international students from Korea.

Alleged assaults included verbal abuse, hitting a child with a spiral-bound notebook on a regular basis and starvation, according to Queens police.

Academy Director Chea Min-kyung, 34, was charged with second-degree assault and four counts of violation of child protection laws. Park Sun-kyung, a 33-year-old employee, was charged with two counts of violation of child protection laws and two counts of third-degree assault.

According to the prosecutor’s office, Chea and Park inflicted abusive punishments on four students — including two boys aged 9 and 10 — from January to July.

The 9-year-old boy, in particular, said he received a punishment of no food or water for several days in one instance.

Employees allegedly threw shoe boxes and backpacks at the 10-year-old boy’s face and limited the number of times he could use the bathroom, causing him to wet his pants.

The academy, which opened its doors five years ago, operates a tutoring school attended by 50 to 60 children but also houses foreign children who are studying abroad from Korea, the New York Times reported.