Report: Bay Shore UFSD settles teacher sexual abuse case

Bay Shore UFSD has settled a lawsuit brought by a former student who claimed teacher Thomas Bernagozzi sexually abused him, Newsday reports.

June 24, 2024, 6:48 p.m. EDT | Updated June 24, 2024, 6:54 p.m. EDT

BAY SHORE, NY — The Bay Shore School District has settled a lawsuit filed by a former student who said he was sexually abused by a third-grade teacher and faced multiple charges, according to a report by Newsday.

According to the outlet, the lawsuit was settled between the school district and a former student who claimed that 75-year-old third-grade teacher Thomas Bernagozzi of Babylon.

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According to Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney, he was sexually abused by Bernagozzi over a three-year period in the late 1980s. This is one of 45 Child Victims Act lawsuits filed against the district involving the teacher.

According to Newsday, the lawsuit is the first uninsured claim against the district to be settled.

“We were able to reach a settlement in this case,” attorney Lewis Silverman of Silverman & Associates in White Plains told state Supreme Court Justice Christopher Modelewski in the Newsday report.

Silverman was not immediately available for comment.

Bernagozzi was charged with multiple counts of possession of a sex act involving a child on June 18 for allegedly possessing five images of a former underage student with her genitals exposed, Tierney said.

Previously, 45 lawsuits had been filed by alleged victims against the Bay Shore school district and Bernagozzi under the New York State Child Victims Act, the prosecutor said.

On December 21, 2023, Bernagozzi was arrested and charged with first-degree sexual abuse of a child and first-degree sodomy in connection with the alleged sexual abuse of two former students, prosecutors said.

Bernagozzi allegedly directed school plays and extracurricular sporting events and, in his free time, took groups of children to local beaches, swimming pools, the gym, Broadway shows and sporting events, prosecutors said.

During his tenure, prosecutors said, Bernagozzi was revered by his fellow teachers and staff, as well as by parents living in the district, who specifically requested that their children be sent to Bernagozzi’s class. His classes were allegedly made up predominantly of male children, prosecutors said.

Anyone with additional information about Bernagozzi should contact Detective Patrick Boyles of the Suffolk County Police Department’s Special Victims Section at 631-275-2302.