Community Cares

Special needs teen goes missing from her Sunset Park school

September 17, 2014 Heather Chin
Fifteen-year-old Nashaly Perez has been missing since Monday, September 15.
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Update (Thursday, September 18 at 11 a.m.): Nashaly Perez was found safe and “in good condition” at a friend’s house at 7 a.m.

Fifteen-year-old special needs student Nashaly Perez has been missing since Monday, September 15 and her parents are asking the public for help finding her.

Perez was last seen at around 1 p.m. leaving P.S. 371, on 37th Street off Fourth Avenue in Sunset Park, reportedly through an unguarded back door. She was wearing a white bandana, red blouse, black jeans and red-and-black sneakers.Ā She is described as standing around five-feet-three-inches tall and weighs 120 pounds.

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Perez has a history of mental illness, say her mother and stepfather, who are angry at school officials for not supervising their daughter, who is supposed to have a full-time paraprofessional with her at all times.

According to Perez’s mother, Sandra Rodriguez, school officials — including the principal, Joan Antonelli, and the unnamed paraprofessional — seemed unconcerned when telling her that her daughter had been missing for at least an hour.

Rodriguez added that no one had contacted her about her daughter’s disappearance.

Antonelli has been re-assigned pending the investigation.

Schools Chancellor CarmenĀ FariƱa said in a statement that she is “deeply concerned about thisĀ student and we have school support on site as we work with the NYPD to investigate this matter.”

The family has hired attorney David Perecman, who also represents the family of Queens autistic teenager Avonte Oquendo, who was left unsupervised and went missing less than a year ago from his Long Island City school, sparking a nationwide search that ended months later when his body was found in waters off College Point.

“This is not a child who can be left alone,” said Perecman. “She’s not responsible for her own needs, her own wants. She doesn’t understand the world.”

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto theĀ Crime Stoppers websiteĀ or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) and then entering TIP577.


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