Sexual Misconduct At BK Heights School Goes Back Decades: Report

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — A prestigious Brooklyn private school that has been called one of the most progressive in the city has a history of sexual misconduct that goes back decades, an investigation alleges.

School leaders from Saint Ann's School on Pierrepont Street sent a letter to parents, employees and alumni on Monday revealing that a yearlong investigation found that 19 former staff members had potentially engaged in inappropriate behavior or sexual misconduct with students, the New York Times first reported. The school had hired an investigator to look into allegations after they first surfaced on Facebook in 2017.

The report said witnesses names 19 staff members, but specifically detailed the actions of six male faculty who engaged in misconduct. Their inappropriate behavior ranged from having sexual contact with a high school senior, sexual intercourse after the student had graduated, engaging in sexual contact with a student at an off-campus party, unwanted kissing and inappropriate touching, the Times reported.

All of the teachers, who were not named, had already left the school before the investigation, the letter said. Their identities were kept a secret because evidence was "not clear and convincing" in some cases, the report said.

The school's founder, Stanley Bosworth, apparently knew about some of the misconduct and was even accused himself of rubbing the leg of a female high school student during a meeting in his office, though investigators said they couldn't corroborate that allegation.

Bosworth, who died in 2011, led Saint Ann's for four decades after creating it in the 1960s.

The prestigious school is known for being unconventional and free-thinking, teaching classes like puppetry and avoiding letter grades. It teaches students kindergarten through 12th grade and costs $40,000 a year for preschool.

Read the full New York Times story on the report here.