If something happened to your kid at KIPP Washington Heights, it wasn't their fault. Not any of it.

If your kid was in fifth, sixth, seventh or eighth grade at KIPP Washington Heights, the charter school on Jumel Place, at any point between the fall of 2024 and the spring of 2026, and something has been off since, then this page is about your family. The principal from those years, Eric Cato, who had run the school since 2022, was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury in August 2026, eight counts, over what prosecutors say he did to students there from October 2024 to March 2026. He's pleaded not guilty. That's the criminal side, and it isn't yours to carry.

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This applies to you no matter what

Your kid never said a word. Not to you, not to a teacher. One girl at this school did, and her mother told NY1 she spoke up because she figured she wasn't the only one. Most kids don't. It changes nothing about what your family can ask.
Your child isn't one of the students in the indictment. The grand jury charged conduct against three children. The DA's office has said, in so many words, that it is still looking for more.
It wasn't the principal. It was a teacher, a coach, someone else on staff. A different teacher at this same school was arrested in 2021, and the principal before Mr. Cato was fired over how he handled it. The school, not the man, is who a case is against.
Nobody at the school ever called you. That is the point, actually. A school that learns something and doesn't act, or doesn't tell the parents, is the whole reason these cases exist.
You're worried about immigration status, or about your kid's record, or about your own. None of that has any bearing on this, and the person you'd talk to is a survivor, not a government office.
You're an aunt, a grandmother, an older sibling asking for a kid who can't. Reach out anyway; a lot of the people who call are exactly that.

The KIPP Washington Heights case: what the public record says, and when

We didn't write what's below. A Manhattan grand jury did, and the District Attorney, and the reporters who covered it, and we link to every one of them. We don't add to it. Eric Cato has pleaded not guilty, the charges against him are allegations until a court says otherwise, and nothing on this page says different.

January 7, 2022

The story came out on 1010 WINS: Cesar Sanchez, a science teacher and baseball coach at KIPP Washington Heights, 39 years old, had been arrested back in December on a complaint that alleged sexual comments to one student from the time she was in fourth grade and, once she got to middle school, groping. The school confirmed to the station that its principal, Danny Swersky, was out too, terminated for improperly handling the allegations. A source told the station that in 2019 Sanchez had slept in the same room as a student on an out-of-state trip, that Swersky knew and didn't report it, and that families were never told why both men were suspended. 1010 WINS.

January 7, 2022

KIPP NYC's superintendent, Jim Manly, told families in an email that Swersky was let go because he failed "to follow KIPP NYC's procedures or meet KIPP NYC's expectations in how he handled this matter." Sanchez was charged with sexual conduct against a child and endangering the welfare of a child. We have not found a published outcome of his case. American School & University.

2022

Eric Cato was appointed school leader of KIPP Washington Heights Middle School, according to a KIPP NYC accountability report cited by Hoodline. He took over in the wake of the Sanchez arrest and the Swersky firing. Hoodline.

August 12, 2026

The NYPD arrested Cato. A Manhattan grand jury indicted him within days, and District Attorney Alvin Bragg said this about it: "As alleged, this principal abused his position to sexually abuse middle schoolers he was entrusted to mentor and keep safe." Eight counts, sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child among them, all for conduct prosecutors say took place between October 2024 and March 2026 against kids who were students at the school while he ran it, the youngest under 13. From KIPP, a spokesperson: Cato "is no longer with the school." Gothamist.

August 19, 2026

A mother went on NY1. Her daughter, 13, had reported Cato to the school, she said, and he later returned. NY1 said it could not confirm that last part. KIPP NYC called the allegations "deeply alarming." The station noted the school had been here before: in 2022 a teacher was fired in a separate case and the principal of the day was fired over his handling of it. NY1.

August 20, 2026

KIPP NYC was by now telling the New York Post that Cato had been dismissed: "This individual is no longer at the school, and we remain focused on protecting student privacy and maintaining a safe and supportive environment for KIPP families and staff." The Post had also read the indictment, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, and reported the plea along with it: not guilty at arraignment, released on his own recognizance. What the paper found in the filing was two children, one of them 12, with whom Cato, 37, is accused of "sexual contact," plus a third whose welfare he's accused of endangering between August and December 2025. New York Post.

We checked this on September 12, 2026, and the newest thing in it is from August 20, 2026. When something new gets filed or decided, it goes in here within 72 hours, with the link.

Who can be held responsible in a KIPP Washington Heights lawsuit

Not only one man. The criminal case is against Eric Cato, and it will run its course with or without you. A civil claim is a different thing. It can be brought against KIPP NYC. That's the charter network that hired him, that put him over about 780 kids, and that was supposed to be watching him. Any school that takes in children owes them at least three things: screen the adults you put over them, keep an eye on those adults, and move the minute a kid says something. Where a school does not, the school answers, not just the person.

Here is why that matters at this particular school. In December 2021 a teacher there was arrested for what a complaint said had gone on since a girl was in fourth grade, and KIPP NYC fired the principal, in its own words, for failing to follow its procedures in how he handled it. Then it appointed Mr. Cato. Two and a half years later, prosecutors say, the abuse charged in this indictment began. And one mother has said publicly that her daughter reported him to the school before he was arrested. If that is what happened, and a lawyer will need to establish it, then what KIPP knew and when is the center of the case.

KIPP NYC is a large, well-funded private nonprofit. It carries its own insurance, and there is no cap in New York on what a jury can award in a case like this. The school also shares a city-owned building, which is a question for the lawyer about whether the city's Department of Education belongs in the case too. Nothing about that is yours to figure out.

Your deadline: the New York statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse claims

For anyone under 18 when it happened, New York's deadline is the day that person turns 55. That is CPLR 208(b), rewritten by the Child Victims Act in 2019, and it applies squarely here because everything charged in this case is from 2024 to 2026 and every student involved was a child. A seventh grader in 2025 has until roughly 2068. There is no revival window to race, no special rule to qualify for. The clock is decades long, and it is real.

Which does not mean a family should wait decades. A parent or guardian can bring a claim on a child's behalf now, while the record is fresh and the people who worked there still remember. Or the child can bring it as an adult. Either way it's a choice, not a deadline, and the person on the phone will lay both out plainly.

One wrinkle a lawyer will want to know early. Because the school shares a building with two city public schools, a claim that reaches the city's Department of Education carries a much shorter step at the front: a notice of claim under General Municipal Law 50-e, due within 90 days. That is a lawyer's question, not yours. It is simply a reason not to sit on this for a year before asking.

Your situation still qualifies even if

Your child was never one of the three in the indictment, and you're not sure what happened counts.
Your kid told a teacher, or a counselor, and nothing changed. Or told nobody.
It wasn't Mr. Cato at all. A teacher, a coach, and it was back before 2024.
Your kid is still enrolled at a KIPP school and you're scared of what a complaint could mean for them, day to day, in that building.
You've moved. To the Bronx, to New Jersey, to Pennsylvania. Doesn't matter where the family lives now.
You already gave a statement to the police or the DA. That is a different case, and it doesn't use this one up.

Facilities covered

KIPP Washington Heights Middle School first, 21 Jumel Place, Manhattan, grades 5 through 8, sharing a building with M.S. 324 and M.S. 319. Then the elementary grades of KIPP NYC Washington Heights Academy, same campus. Then any other KIPP NYC school, Manhattan, the Bronx or Brooklyn, all of them. Different school in the city, and something happened there anyway? The questions still work; answer them and say so on the call.

Questions people are asking

Can I sue KIPP Washington Heights Middle School?

A civil case would be against KIPP NYC, the network that runs the school, and possibly against Mr. Cato himself. Whether your family has one depends on what happened, when, and what the school knew, which is what the questions above sort out. As of this writing we have not found a civil suit on file over the Cato charges; the criminal case is what's public.

Was the KIPP principal Eric Cato convicted?

No. Arrested August 12, 2026. Indicted by a Manhattan grand jury on eight counts. A not-guilty plea, and release on his own recognizance. That's the entire record as of now, and a civil claim doesn't wait on any of it, nor does it need a conviction at the end.

Can a parent sue on a child's behalf in New York?

Yes. For a minor, the parent or guardian is the one who brings it, and any resolution goes through the court, which signs off to protect the child. Or the family can wait and the child can bring it as an adult. Both doors stay open.

Do I need to go to the police or the DA first, before a lawyer?

No. The DA's office has asked families with information to call its Child Abuse Bureau, and many will. A civil claim is a separate thing entirely; neither one requires the other, and a family can do both, or one, or neither.

What's the deadline to sue for child sexual abuse in New York?

Until the survivor's 55th birthday, on the civil side. That comes from CPLR 208(b), which the Child Victims Act rewrote in 2019, and for conduct in 2024 through 2026 against middle schoolers it's the rule, plain, with no revival window needed. Claims that pull in a city agency have a separate 90-day notice step, which is why a lawyer should look sooner rather than later.

How much does a sexual abuse lawyer cost?

Nothing, here. Every case is on contingency. The lawyer is paid only out of what is recovered, and if nothing is recovered you owe nothing. Not for the call, not for the review, not for the case.

Who sees your form

Kerim Eravci · Survivor Advocate · Not a lawyer

I was a victim, and I waited. Not because I didn't know what happened to me (I knew every day), but because I'd decided it was over, mine to carry, nobody's business. When I finally went looking for a lawyer, the answer came back in two words I'd never thought about: statute of limitations. My time had run out while I was busy getting through it.

What that has cost me since is a long story, and I'll tell you the whole thing in private, if you want it. The short version is the reason my name is on this page: I'm here to help people do what I wish I'd done, which is find out where you stand while the door's still open.

I'm not a lawyer. I read what you send, I call you once, on your terms, and nothing gets filed unless you say so. Ask sooner than I did.

Kerim Eravci is not an attorney. He's a survivor.

What happens next. Three steps, nothing more until you say so.

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ME2 Survivors Alliance protects the heart. Licensed New York attorneys do the legal work. We are not lawyers and we don't pretend to be.

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Every case is on contingency. There is no charge for the call, the review, or the case. The firm is paid only out of a recovery, and if there is no recovery you owe nothing.