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Principal Beaten by Student After Asking Him to Remove Headphones: NYPD

By Irene Plagianos | October 25, 2016 4:56pm
 Murry Bergtraum High School sits across the street from One Police Plaza, and is just a few blocks from City Hall.
Murry Bergtraum High School sits across the street from One Police Plaza, and is just a few blocks from City Hall.
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DNAinfo/Irene Plagianos

LOWER MANHATTAN — The principal of a Lower Manhattan high school was attacked by a student Monday after he told the teen to take off his headphones, police said.

Matthew Tossman, asked 18-year-old Luis Penzo to remove his headphones as the student was blasting music, walking through the hallway of his Early College School for Advertising, which is located inside Murry Bergtraum High School, at 411 Pearl St.

Penzo refused and began to repeatedly punch Tossman in the face, in a noon attack that left the principal with cuts around his eyes and swelling, police said.

The teen was charged with third-degree assault, police said. As of Tuesday afternoon, he had still not been arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court.

Tossman was taken to New York-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital for treatment and released, officials said.

At an unrelated press conference Tuesday, City Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña said that Tossman "is recovering at home and we expect him to make a full recovery," adding "of course we are upset."

"Anytime anyone is hurt in any of our schools, any child or adult, is cause for concern," Fariña continued. "So going back and reviewing what happened is important, but the consequences were if you do something wrong you are going to be arrested. And I think we actually did that exactly as we needed to do."

Murry Bergtraum, which sits adjacent to Police Headquarters at 1 Police Plaza, has been the site of several violent incidents over the years. Most recently, earlier in October, a teen was caught with a loaded handgun in his backpack.

— Additional reporting by Ben Fractenberg.