Teacher fired, she says, after speaking out against accused child abuser

NEW YORK (WABC) -- A teacher who was fired from a prestigious private preschool in Manhattan says she was fired for blowing the whistle on an intern she believed was sexually abusing students.

Mariangela Kefalas is now suing The International Preschools.

She says the school fired her back in June, less than a week after she reported what she saw to the principal.

"She saw him touching children in a way that she was uncomfortable with, in a way that she did not think was appropriate. She did exactly what I would have wanted her to do if my kid was in that classroom and she was fired for it," said Patrick James Boyd, an attorney.

Kefalas then went to police.

That intern now faces more than a dozen charges of child abuse.