A teacher at the elite New York school where Jeffrey Epstein taught has resigned after being accused of sexually abusing a student for two years.
Mara Naaman, 50, resigned four days after the Dalton school received a letter written “on behalf of a former student” claiming the English teacher mistreated them between 2020 and 2022.
Parents at the private school, which costs $61,000 a year, were alerted three days later by an email from the principal, Jose De Jesús, warning that there could be other victims.
“We are only providing the name of the teacher so that anyone with relevant information can provide it,” he wrote.
“Our priority is to determine the veracity of these claims and to determine whether there are other allegations of abuse from other members of the community.”
Mara Naaman, 50, a mother and former Fulbright scholar, resigned from her position as an English teacher at New York’s Dalton School four days after receiving allegations of sexual abuse.
Principal Jose De Jesus told parents the school was trying to establish the number of victims
A mother and former Fulbright scholar who describes herself as a “writer, scholar, humanist,” Naaman was a tenured assistant professor of Arabic and comparative literature at Williams College in Massachusetts, where she spent seven years before joining Dalton in 2017.
At the school, she taught English literature from grades 9 to 12 and was named an “internal advisor,” tasked with “creating a safe space for conversations about personal responsibility,” according to the school’s website. school.
“House advisors not only provide advice on academic matters, but also serve as a ‘sounding board’ for students on all matters, including social and emotional matters,” he explains. .
“Additionally, the house counselor is the primary contact between Dalton and the student’s family.”
Alumni of the K-12 school include journalist Anderson Cooper, actresses Claire Danes and Tracee Ellis Ross, and actor Chevy Chase.
The school gained notoriety during the Jeffrey Epstein trial when it emerged that the billionaire pedophile had worked there as a physics and mathematics teacher in 1973, mentoring, among others, the son of former Bear Stearns chairman Alan “Ace” Greenberg.
It was also at the center of a lawsuit against former principal Gardner Dunnan, accused in a 2018 lawsuit of sexually abusing a 14-year-old student he took into his home in the 1980s.
Dunnan allowed the girl to be admitted to the school without going through a formal application process, according to the lawsuit.
Since she couldn’t afford the tuition, the lawsuit says the girl was allowed to live with Dunnan and his wife on the condition that she help them with their newborn in their apartment near the school .
Naaman, a Columbia University graduate, was among dozens of Dalton staff members who signed an “anti-racist manifesto” in 2020 demanding an overhaul of the curriculum before returning to the classroom after the pandemic.
The eight-page document demanded the hiring of 12 dedicated diversity officers, giving half of all donations to New York public schools, and the elimination of AP classes if the performance of black students does not match that of whites.
School officials insisted the document was just a set of “food for thought” and said it already contained a “commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and the fight against racism, based on our deep appreciation of the dignity of all members of the community.
The school reported the latest accusations to police and hired “external investigative firm T&M USA LLC, experts in the field of sexual misconduct, to conduct an investigation.”
The $61,000-a-year Upper East Side school counts among its alumni journalist Anderson Cooper, actresses Claire Danes and Tracee Ellis Ross, and actor Chevy Chase.
The former Fulbright scholar, a Michigan native, gave up his tenured position as assistant professor of Arabic and comparative literature at Williams College in Massachusetts before joining Dalton in 2017.
“The school has a clear policy and guidelines for appropriate interactions with Dalton students,” De Jesus wrote.
“Currently, upon hire, all employees are fingerprinted and we conduct a background check.
“Every year, they participate in training on boundaries and the prevention of sexual harassment. »
Naaman’s sudden resignation also alarmed some parents who were counting on her to recommend college to their children.
“It was a very big surprise,” a former Dalton relative told the New York Post.
“Everyone talks about it but no one really knows what happened.”
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