Suit Against School and Religious Institution and Principal for Principal’s Molestation of 3 Different Students Over a Four-Year Rampage, While School and Institution Conspired to Covered It Up (Students were as young as 13 years old)

This intensely litigated case involves a suit by three former middle school students against the Nur-Ul-Islam Academy and Mosque for damages resulting from the Head of the School and Teacher’s alleged repeated rapes and other sexual molestations on each of the three students throughout a 4-year rampage.  There are additional other former middle school students who claim improper sexual advances were made after this period, but they currently have not decided to pursue litigation.

All three students have suffered significant emotional problems that have persisted throughout the years. When a victim is sexually abused at such a young age, it creates long-term problems that reverberate throughout that victim’s life. For example, one of the victims said, “I’m sick and tired of thinking that every man is a rapist and a pedophile [because of the abuse suffered], and sometimes I wish I didn’t have kids because I am so scared that they are going to be raped or kidnapped.” “He and they [the School and Mosque] took away my entire childhood,” said another victim. “My life was destroyed and I continued to suffer so deeply every day of my life.”

In depositions recently conducted, the Defendants continue to claim in their audacious defense that the these then children were the “sole cause” of their own misfortune, or alternatively claim that each child’s parents are responsible for failing to supervise their children; rather than face the fact that these children were repeatedly abused by their teacher and head of high school, a man placed in a position of complete authority over the victims by the Defendants. Defendant Hussain even went so far as to assert that all of the fault is on the Jane Does because all children “assume the risk” of being sexually abused by their teachers or other school staff. The former Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Academy, who is currently the President of the Mosque, said under oath that he believed that the allegations of sexual abuse have not impacted the school in any way, and that the school has “gone from strength to strength.”

The lead attorney for the alleged victims, noted attorney Scott A. Mager of Mager Paruas, LLC, says that this blasé victim blaming shown in the Defendants’ responses is nothing new. “We have evidence that school officials were aware of the sexual relationship between some of the children and the teacher. Instead of acknowledging that reality, the Nur-Ul-Islam School Defendants ludicrously blame the children and their parents. This litigation is nearing its 5^th year and the Defendants continue to seek to delay the case. The Defendants seem to be empowered by how they can get away with their wrongful conduct and dilatory tactics.”

“Few appreciate the empirical data showing how devastating and lasting such acts have upon their victims, or the lifetime effects of childhood sex abuse,” says Mager.

The former students have further alleged that Nur-Ul-Islam Academy has continued to use religious influence and community pressure to intimidate other alleged victims and witnesses in an attempt to deny justice to the victims.

Mager, who has regularly championed the causes of young victims to great success, feels his cause is just: “It’s easy to see the rapists and pedophiles as the monsters that they are, but it’s those among us who shelter and allow these pedophiles who are nearly as terrifying.  They hide among us.  Whether or not we can ever rid society of sexual deviants that desire to prey on our children, we make our community a better place when we hold those who shelter these deviants accountable.”

After an initial firestorm of media attention in 2014 when the suit was filed, through the successful efforts of numerous law firms for the Defendants, the case has languished in court system.  The Defendants were successful in blocking the progress of the case until they were sanctioned by the Broward County Courts in December of 2017. Such judicial sanction is a relatively rare occurrence, only meted out for the most egregious of violations. Since that time, further disturbing revelations have come to light, including the possibility that one or more of the Defendants committed perjury. “They can’t hide forever,” says Mager.  “We will spend every day and night seeking justice for these children. It is time for a true awakening and to hold institutions accountable for their wrongful acts.”

Many worrying facts emerged from the recently taken depositions. For example, Chapter 39 of the Florida Statutes makes it a felony to fail to report allegations of child abuse. Incredibly, the School Defendant testified under oath that to this day it has never reported any allegations to anyone. “It is despicable that anyone can get away with not reporting alleged child abuse,” says Mager. “If schools are not taking responsibility for properly training teachers and heads of school and ensuring that there are proper safeguards in place for teachers, students, and parents, we will never have safety in our schools.  Parents will be required to home school all children, for fear of permanently scarring their children by the horrific acts of school staff and leadership.” The School Defendant also testified under oath that it took no steps to investigate any of the matters, even after the lawsuits were filed; and that to date, no member of staff has been reprimanded or disciplined except for the actual perpetrator himself. These are only a couple of the numerous failures the Jane Does allege took place.

Here, the School Defendant’s own sworn testimony also shows that it had no idea what training was provided to teachers, or what training was provided to students to provide an environment to communicate sexual advances or other improprieties made by teachers.  Also, according to its sworn testimony, the School could not testify as to a single course provided to the teachers on how to discover or handle claims of inappropriate behavior; the School had no written policies that inform the teachers of their duty to disclose, or inform teachers what to do when they suspect inappropriate behavior; it had no written policies on teacher contact with students, such as inappropriate texts and phone calls that were made to various students; it had no restrictions on teacher access to student phone numbers, as one of the students was contacted by the rapist going into the office and searching through school records; it had no written policies on educating students or parents on how to handle allegations of inappropriate teacher contact/conduct.

The Defendants have also refused to take any action in regard to the former teacher and alleged rapist, Tariq Ahmad, and only terminated Ahmad after he was indicted for molestation and sexual battery.  Equally troubling, the School knew where Tariq Ahmad was located when the indictment was issued, but Ahmad was allowed to flee the jurisdiction before authorities could apprehend him.  He remains a fugitive.

Rape and sexual abuse cases have yielded significant jury verdicts this past year.  In Miami-Dade County, a recent jury verdict of $49,000,000 was entered for a student who was similarly abused by a teacher.  In Broward County, a $71,000,000 verdict was recently awarded to a woman who was raped on a boat.