A former student at Brooklyn’s elite Poly Prep Country Day School has filed a lawsuit claiming that a tennis coach, who worked for the school as recently as last month, sexually abused her when she attended the school in the late 1980s.
The plaintiff, identified in court papers as Jane Roe, claims in a lawsuit filed on Thursday in Brooklyn Supreme Court that tennis coach William Martire had a reputation among students of being a “pervert,” wearing “unbelievably tight shorts that clearly displayed the outline of his genitals” and making inappropriate remarks.
Roe claims she was just 14 years old when Martire forced her to give him oral sex in his car while they were away at Montauk for tennis camp. Roe says that, from there, Martire repeatedly abused her over a two-year period.
After Roe’s suit was filed under the Child Victims Act, Poly Prep Head of School Audrius Barzdukas issued a statement in which he said that Martire will no longer coach at the school nor will he be allowed onto school grounds or at Poly Prep events.
“We are heartbroken and outraged to hear these stories from our past, and that students who were in our care are carrying feelings of being harmed and abused,” Barzdukas said. “We are committed to establishing and inculcating best practices and a culture that keeps students safe and empowers them to report, to ‘say something,’ if they see or feel anything inappropriate.”
Martire could not be reached for comment.
“We don’t want to talk to anybody,” said a female who answered a phone number listed in Martire’s name before hanging up.



