JCC Basketball Coach Charged With Punching 10-Year-Old
Image by W6/iStock
By Aiden Pink May 21, 2019
A basketball coach at a Jewish community center on Long Island was arrested and charged with assault and endangering the welfare of a child after allegedly punching a 10-year-old, News 12 Long Island reported Monday.
The incident allegedly took place at the Sid Jacobson Jewish Community Center in Greenvale. According to police, the boy said that his coach, Cheikh Khadim Ndiaye, punched him multiple times on both arms after participating in a drill called “knockout,” leaving bruises. After the boy’s father called the coach for an explanation, he allegedly replied, “We were just playing games and I’m sorry.”
JCC executive director David Black said in an email to the community that when they found out about the incident, Ndiaye was immediately suspended and banned from the premises. “The security and well-being of all of our members, especially our youth, is of paramount importance,” Black wrote, according to The Island News. “We will not tolerate any environment that is not safe and healthy for all in our community, including our youngest, every participant and member, and our staff.”
Ndiaye, a former college basketball player, had no prior criminal record and was released on his own recognizance at his arraignment on Monday. The next hearing is scheduled for June 4.
Correction, May 22: A previous version of this story claimed that Ndiaye was fired, citing a report in The Island News. In fact, Ndiaye has been suspended pending an internal investigation.
Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter at @aidenpink.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
