The jury has returned in the Lina Sinha case, the now 40 year old former Principal of the Montessori School of New York. The verdict? Guilty.
The former principal of a Manhattan private school was convicted yesterday of having sex with one of her students in a classroom when he was about 13 and she was about 30. The jury deadlocked on charges that the principal… also had sex with a second student about five years after she seduced the first boy. [Link]
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p>There’s actually a ton of desiness in here. Prosecutors brought up the fact that she lived with her parents to depict her as a sheltered woman, hence her interest in much younger guys:
Prosecutors portrayed Ms. Sinha as a sheltered woman who lived with her parents in the town house housing the school, which her family owned, until she was in her late 30s. [Link]
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p>How did she live with her parents in the building the school was set in? Simple. They own the school. She not only lived with mom and dad, but she worked in the family business as well:
Sinha has been a teacher for 16 years at the Montessori International School of New York, which was established by her parents in 1969 … The parents own two similar schools in the city. [Link]
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p>Interestingly, reviews of the school are very harsh and negative, particularly on the family owned aspect (to be fair, these were written after the scandal broke and may not be accurate):
It is a completely creepy school. It is family-run, and there seems to be absolutely no accountability. Parents are discouraged from being involved with the school and the teachers; it’s unclear what the teachers’ credentials are… we were quite traumatized by the school. The graduates of the school … seem to be brainwashed, as if all their personality had been bled out of them — it is very very strange. [Link]
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p>I don’t know if the school is creepy, but the photo below, taken from their website of somebody who seems to look like Lina, is most definitely creepy!
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p>There was also a desi juror, a Mr. Sam Desai, who presumably knew that not all women who live with their parents molest underaged boys:
One juror, Sam Desai, said in an interview that although there were some “heated moments” during deliberations, the jurors did not doubt the credibility of the first accuser. His testimony was the “primary piece of evidence” leading to conviction, Mr. Desai said.
He said the jurors, during deliberations, did discuss whether they would think differently about the case if the defendant was a man and the accusers were women. “Those types of hypotheticals were used all the time, and what came out was the best result,” he said. [Link]
She’s been convicted of several minor counts as well, and now faces up to 7 years in jail:
Besides the sodomy and witness bribery counts, Sinha was convicted on several counts of criminal impersonation and falsely reporting an incident, all misdemeanors punishable by up to a year in jail. [Link]
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p>The judge just raised her bail seven times from $50,000 to $3.5 million dollars. Her lawyer said her parents would come up with the bail and that they were confident of winning upon appeal.
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p>Previous post: Mature Macaca Molested Montessori Minor, Maybe
OK, I still don’t beleive this story, still seems like it was all fabricated by some newsperson and friends to me..
Why was she still living with her parents at that age ??? There is nothing desi about that..
I don’t think desi kids are very sheltered at all, most are pretty normal and have active social lives..
Also is she married ? I guess most desi gals get married between 22 – 24 and she should have had an arranged marriage by then and been doing those things with her husband not her students !
As far as I can tell from the various news stories, she was unmarried.
What don’t you believe about it?
What is sodomy, and why is it illegal?
Sodomy is defined as an “unnatural sexual act” ie. anything that isn’t missionary, but most commonly referred to as anal sex. In this instance, it’s the pedophilia.
See, I read that as oral sex with somebody below the age of consent.
So she sodomized her students?? Or was it the other way around (ahem)? Wow, talk about a liberal education.
By the way, the MMMMMM is a nice touch (More Mature Macaca Molested Montessori Minor).
Mr. Kobayashi, please wiki sodomy and you will come to know why it is illegal.
I think it refers to this:
It sounds like a complete fabrication. Anybody knows that good Indian girls (a) don’t french kiss and (b) don’t french kiss in anything less than a Lexus (unless they’re married to the person in which case a Toyota will do).
Sodomy reminds me (and which probably has been covered somewhere in these pages) that under the Indian penal code, homosexuality is illegal since the IPC defines illegal any sex which is not ‘natural’ or some such stupid definition making sodomy illegal. All this has achieved in recent times is to provide a reason for harassment of homosexuals by the police and other officials.
Ardy. We covered it here, here, and here, in case you want to read more. There are probably a few more posts on the subject somewhere on the blog as well.
There are some shady newspeople in Chicago Area, so I can beleive that this kind of story could be fabricated..
And I dunno anything about New York or it’s neighborhoods but how are people going to treat this woman once she pays her fines / completes her jail time ?
How is the atmosphere in New York towards Indians and alleged Indian criminals ? Although I guess she could pass as a hispanic, most people will be able to tell the difference.
Are they going to harass her / make her miserable until she goes back to India ?
Sadaiyappan – there was a whole trial here, and the verdict was covered extensively both in the local and international press. It’s not just one or two local papers. Mainly they’re reporting testimony given at the trial.
Is the brown community in New York going to support her and help her ?
She doesn’t look really hot, but she’s not ugly either.. She looks OK..
Help her with what? Seven years from now she is going to be pretty forgotten. Why on earth would someone want to fabricate this story! sheeesh
Now that’s what I call getting your brown belt…
What does the guy accusing her of these thing’s looking for, by bringing up these charges?
And if it is money, he should be paying this dream maker, not the other way around.
Crap, this isn’t going to turn into “The Pedophile Who Was So Hot She Shouldn’t Be Convicted Thread As Brought To You By The South Asian Female Objectification/Math Club” is it? Because if I end up internalizing any more sexism, the blood will come shooting out of my ears, I just know it….
I’d hit it. A little bit.
Dude. Have you been talking to my mother?
Are the comments going to continue on the “is she hot or not?” topic, or are we going to get to the real point? Which is: this is what living on the Upper East Side does to a person.
Actually, I’m surprised. There’s only been one comment on hot or not, and that was not. Then again, it’s still early and I have things to do, Friday night and all …
Tamasha – maybe this is what living at a school on the east side with your parents does to you …
Well, time for a legitimate contribution: the psychopathological connection between pedophilia and upbringing.
So, she’s Indian. As an Indian, I believe this makes you crazy by default. Definitely very wealthy. Lives on the Upper East Side–a place I have come to associate with the most repressed culture wash of neuroticism I have ever encountered in my entire life. People are so prescriptive up there! Every manner of conversation topic and major event (wedding, funeral, cocktail party, cocktail party, garden party, cocktai–) has its own set of sentences that come in an easy to assemble pack. When they need something invigorating to spice up their 150,000-250,000 income box life, generally in the form of something interesting and “ethnic”, how the heads roll! I can imagine the cocktail conversation she grew up around (because I had a similar set of experiences in the Georgetown DC area begins PTSD flashbacks)
WASP 1: How very fascinating, my dear, so you’re Indian? I’ve been taking yoga classes very recently and my chakra feels so much cleaner. I think your people are just beautiful! Gorgeous! Fabulous! Last year in the Hamptons I got so tan I was nearly as dark as you! I just love what you’re wearing! Is that a saw-ree? No? Really? Are you sure you got it at H&M? The colors are so lovely and ethnic! Oh I could never wear something like that, it would clash miserably! Are you dating anyone? Oh…oh that’s right…your parents probably already have a husband wait-listed for you. My friend’s cousin’s chauffeur’s dogwalker’s minister had a friend in India who was married at the age of 5 to a man 56 years her senior! Isn’t that the most bizarre thing ever? Oh but this is just church conversation–do you still slay goats for your adorable little ceremonies?
Unsuspecting Macaca American: kills self
My utterly projected bleeding childhood memories aside, growing up with neuropsychiatrists/pediatricians/neurologist parents (oh yeah. degree whores, both of ’em) made most of our daal bhath rotli shak conversation center around the latest DSM IV updates and discrepancies. Many pedophiles, as I’m sure many of you know/guess/already knew GEEZ, have been conditioned through negative sexual experiences at a very early age. Generally, an overconservative, repressive, and hypocritical approach to sex is conveyed and the pedophile eventually grows to confuse innocence with the inevitable sex drive that comes with puberty. Frequently, if anyone here watches SVU religiously, pedophiles propagate more pedophiles. It’s an endless vicious cycle. Maybe it’s got it’s chemical elements, but there’s not enough grounds on it for many people to accept it as a permanent factor in the diagnosis.
Maybe she had nightmare indian parenting clash with a post-modern denigration and isolation that comes with a failed assimilation amongst the ethnocentric and wealthy.
Hopefully someone has a completely different perception of the Upper East Side. That person is not, evidently, me.
Ahem. She lived on 55th street. Technically, that’s not the Upper East Side. The UES ends with Central Park on 59th. Amusingly enough, that means she probably lived on the Middle East Side 😉
More seriously, that sliver of a neighborhood is called Sutton Place, which is part of Midtown. Once you’re south of 59th, the neighborhood does shift, as does the atmosphere.
Oh well that changes everything. Aliens probed her. Mystery solved.
running fever of 103 degrees
I shall be unable to gauge the true insanity of my rambling comments until I stop seeing purple spots and my homeostasis kicks in. Until then, thanking any understanding (though unfortunate) comment readers in advance.
Don’t drink and blog and/or feverishly blog.
I never follow my own advice.
sutton place is even more UES than the UES. Antahkarana, I am heading over to the Mark hotel to have a nightcap in your honor.
So the accuser is White or Black or Indian?
Would the jail time be the same if it were a male teacher who’d done what Ms-Oooh-I’m-All-Repressed-Living-With-My-Parents-And-Their-Traditional-Ways had done?
She is one sick, sick person who needs longer jail time, probably in a restorative setting. And on a more serious note, she’s not even that hot.
The exact definition varies from state to state, but sodomy has been broadly defined as a sexual “crime against nature” â€â€[Link]….haha
Yikes. The one thing I don’t get is why a school called “Montessori” had high school aged students. Aren’t montessoris mainly for little kids? And wouldn’t the school be regulated by city standards at all?
If she was in India – she would be considered Victim!! Ladies are always supposed to be victims weather they rape or molest or commit adultry in India. All this due to the fact of having a stupid President and Prime Minister who are spineless in front of Ladies and Fanatic Feminist Terrorists Like Renuka Choudary…
Maybe if women had equal treatment in other fields, they’d have equal treatment in convictions. It’s a double edged sword. Wow, I can rest easy knowing if I’m a pedophile people will go easy on me because of my cervix! That’s like the best news EVER! Ugh.
This is the one thing many men will rant about until they feel like they’re the ones being repressed, but maybe it’s time to pull your head out of your ass, really think about where we’ve come as a society, and look up rape statistics, domestic violence statistics, the division in income, inequality in sports, lack of opportunities, the fact that this thread was accompanied by an impromptu game of “hot or not” while most male pedophiles are downright disgusting (maybe if she was hot, she’d only have 4 years! OMGZ!).
There is no excuse, regardless of age, background, gender, and circumstances for harming anyone. Pedophilia is disgusting and I’m just as upset they’ve gone lenient on a woman as opposed to a man not only because the ruling is unfair towards many male pedophiles or pedophiles of a lower socioeconomic status. However, there’s no reason to start turning this into a gender war that makes it sound like women have been on the winning end of all rulings of injustice. This case just proves EVERYTHING doesn’t it? Women have always secretly had the upper hand!/sarcasm
It’s not right that she wasn’t tried for the same amount of time as a male, and while it is wrong of the Indian Government to assume women are the victims in all cases–there’s enough generalizations floating around about incompetent and crazy women as well as the fact the MAJORITY of those pedophilia, rape, and sodomy offenses were by men and against women. If it wasn’t for those, Indian women would have nothing…because who on earth, apart from wandering American documentary makers, is really going to listen to us?
And this is why when my other feminist friends look sadly at me for being part of this race for these reasons, I have to hesitate a lot before I say “Oh no, they’ve really cleaned up their act! At least now it’s not mandatory for us to have a seat in some fire to prove our purity! I think maybe in the next few years, people will stop running at my unborn baby with a coat hanger because it’s a girl. I’m super stoked!”
she kinda cute..anyone have her digits? i’ll pretend to be 13
Whaaaa? Renuka Chowdhury? Feminist? Since when? Anyone who says “It is men’s turn to suffer”, sounds more like an evil auntie (a la Shashikala) than a feminist.
Exactly. The ambient juvenile sexism is a measure of how far we have yet to come before the subject is taken seriously. One can only hope that the people who say incredibly dumb things online behind the veil of Internet anonymity are more considered and careful when they have to deal with problems in real life.
Mass hysteria about sex abuse cases is more common than you think. Ever seen the movie Capturing the Friedmans? Info on that particular horrendouse miscarriage of justice:
http://slate.msn.com/id/2096296/
This should be a lesson to all desi parents who don’t let their daughters date (not even other Indians).
I agree w/ Anguished Male. There is no justice for men. Everyday they are geting adam-teased, raped and burnt alive for dowry. And don’t even get me started on male infanticide.
Hardly. First, no decent UES neighborhood would have a major trump project in it. Secondly, it’s more varied. It has some ultra-rich, but some less so. Third, it lacks the same snob appeal. It doesn’t have the “right” zip codes and it certainly doesn’t have the same pre-war housing stock.
Isn’t seven years kinda less for this grave crime? IMO, for any sex related transgression the person should be thrown in prison until the sex drive is diminished to the point of nearing zero, so they won’t do damage after release. For most people it’s in their 50’s and 60’s. Going by her age (32), she should have got 30 years.
M. Nam
Justice prevails !!! Regardless of Color or Sex.
Good Decision.
Hey, DesiDawg, stick to one handle. Either be DesiDawg or AnguishedMale, but don’t make it seem like you’re two people when you’re really one.
Heh, Heh, Heh. Antahkarana is very funny. And I mean really funny, not just for a feminist.
Dear Anguished Desi Male Dawg, My apologies for blanket statement. You are right. There are equal no. of male victims when it comes to gender-related crimes. I’m off to edumacate myself at the nearest College.
Montessori has nothing to do with the age of students. It is a pedagogical method, or if you prefer, “philosophy.” Montessori schools tend to be community-oriented environments that consider the development of the whole child (intellectually, spiritually, physically (insert lame jokes here, I guess), emotionally, etc). The problem is that many schools think they cannot continue with this sort of nurturing as children grow up (or that children don’t need it).
And no, I don’t teach in a Montessori school!
as one of the dumb people behind the veil, allow me to respond…
siddhartha, look at the details of these cases. Fualaau married his rapist (Letourneau). Lafave’s victim began the affair by physically throwing himself on her by grabbing her breasts and throwing her against the blackboard in front of a friend.
now, if this kid came to me for advice i’d tell him never make a physical move w/o at least holding the woman’s hand first…one must go thru the bases. i’d also tell him to stop playing the victim and start taking responsibility for your actions. this poor woman had bi-polar disorder and maybe the kid is the predator, not vice versa. he’s 13 for gods sake, not 6, and that makes you an adult if your jewish.
now if the details of the case were different, i may respond differently. but i certainly wouldn’t look at every case with a blanket adult predator/ child victim paradigm.
however, if the law wants to treat females like male predators, i have no problem with that as we have a 14th ammendment to uphold; but morally, if the kid is the agressor, he should enjoy it then STFU (and that means not going around bragging to his friends). This, a healthy and empowered adult makes.
those making the juvenile sexist remarks are revealing how this is really about sex, not power. a powefull point.
And, as everyone knows, sex and power are different. It’s either one or the other and ne’er the twain shall meet.
I do look forward to teaching your kids, Manju. I promise to be gentle.
You stole my line!
Antahkarana stereotypes the UES demographic ‘neuropsychiatrists etc.’ and then engages in his/her own dsm-speak. Somehow I think real minds are a lot more complicated. What I want to know is how much of the Montessori philosophy influenced her prowls?
In keeping with what seems to be the norm on the Mutiny these days, Salon posted an article on Broadsheet that seems especially relevant.
Seven years is too light.
I say she should refund the kids’ school tuition (with interest compounded until today) out of her own pocket. And spend a year in sex therapy, where, each week, she gets slapped in the face by one of the kids she screwed.
It’s sort of ironic. Desi parents are huge on education. (Remember your last fight with the parents about an exam? You scored 96 and all your parents could whine about is that other kid who scored 97. He’d go to Hard-Vard and you’d end up at BumAss State College …) This Lisa gal, educated AND an educator, has screwed up, in school, AGAIN!
That, my friends, is the ultimate mutiny. And, like all mutineers, she’s probably gonna hang for it.
$T