NYC private school told parents it was racist to oppose hiring of felon teacher who was then arrested for 'child porn'

By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-12-11 16:27:01 | Updated at 2024-12-22 06:41:09 1 week ago
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Administrators at New York City private school knowingly hired a convicted felon and shamed concerned parents and teachers as 'racist', according to a bombshell report.

This decision to hire 38-year-old Winston Nguyen by Saint Ann's School in Brooklyn for the 2020 school year culminated in police arresting him in June and charging him with a litany of sex crimes against children.

Nguyen, who was a winning contestant on Jeopardy in 2014, is accused of soliciting lewd images from students, promoting a sexual performance by a child and disseminating indecent material to a minor.

But despite complaints about his 'grooming' behavior and a known Snapchat catfishing scheme that led to naked pictures of underage students being leaked, the report found that leaders at the school treated him as a valued employee and even once called him 'an angel from heaven.'

'In some instances, they prioritized teachers including Nguyen over the concerns of students and their families about the teacher’s background or behavior,' reads the report.

Saint Ann's commissioned the investigation, which was conducted by law firm Debevoise & Plimpton after the math teacher was arrested near the school.

Debevoise spoke to 68 people - current and former teachers and families at Saint Ann's - and reviewed more than 30,000 documents, including emails, personnel files and policies.

The report's authors, lawyers Helen Cantwell and Arian June, concluded that top leaders at the school 'protected' Nguyen - who was previously convicted of grand larceny and other charges. 

Winston Nguyen appears on an episode of Jeopardy! on July 18, 2024

Nguyen, pictured in court on July 25, 2024, is now accused of promoting a sexual performance by a child and disseminating indecent material to a minor

They also did not disclose his criminal past because they were interested in giving him a 'second chance.' 

Though the report found no evidence of Nguyen engaging in sexual or romantic relationships with students, it argued that he routinely 'pushed boundaries' and violated policies with his 'overly familiar and excessive interactions with students.'

This included him giving out snacks to students from his 'candy closet,' tutoring them for free both on and off campus and even bringing food to students' homes completely unannounced and uninvited, the report said.

'One witness was particularly alarmed because they did not know how Nguyen learned their address,' the lawyers revealed.

The report also detailed how administrators repeatedly failed to investigate claims of someone catfishing students to get them to share sexually explicit pictures of themselves.

High school students told administrators in February 2024 about three Snapchat accounts that allegedly sent inappropriate pictures of girls attending the school to other students, the report said.

Administrators allegedly fell back on their internal policy of not reporting individual instances of inappropriate behavior on social media given 'how frequently' it happens. 

At that point, they did not tell the wider community about the catfishing allegations, only speaking with the families involved and not getting in touch with the District Attorney, according to the report.

Pictured: Saint Ann's School, which is located in Brooklyn Heights

'Saint Ann’s administrators decided that communication about the issue would draw unwanted attention to the catfishing victims,' the report said. 

'Thus, information that some Saint Ann’s students were being targeted by an unknown Snapchat account was not shared beyond a small group of administrators.' 

In April and May 2024, administrators once again learned about similar catfishing behavior, only this time it was going on with middle school students, the report said. 

Again, they were accused of not informing the community.

'Administrators did not think that the account holder was affiliated with Saint Ann’s and, believing it was unrelated to the School, did not notify anyone beyond certain affected families,' the report said.

Only when police arrested Nguyen in June and told administrators it was related the to the February Snapchat incident did they realize the 'messages were likely sent by the same person'.

It was Maureen 'Mo' Yusuf-Morales, Head of the Upper Middle School at Saint Ann's, who first recommended Nguyen to be hired in August 2020, per the report.

She had known him since 2006 and had crossed paths while working at various educational programs, the report said. 

At the time of his hiring, the school was short-staffed and 'urgently needed to hire short-term staff members to assist with the logistics of remote and hybrid learning given the Covid-19 pandemic,' according to the report.

Yusuf-Morales was aware of Nguyen's crimes and when Melissa Kantor, then-Dean of Faculty, informed then-Head of School Vince Tompkins about it later, she described what he did as 'financial issue with his prior employer,' the report claimed.

Tompkins was said to have authorized Nguyen's hiring 'without any record of further inquiry about the nature of Nguyen’s crime.'

Nguyen stole $300,000 from Bernard and Florence Stoll. Bernard died in November 2019. Florence in November 2018

Nguyen is pictured on July 31, 2018, appearing in court over those theft charges

In 2019, Nguyen was jailed on Rikers Island for four months after he stole $300,000 from a 96-year-old blind man and his 92-year-old wife. His victims, Bernard and Florence Stoll, have since died.

He was also ordered to pay back the money he stole. 

The school's own background check - completed in early September 2020 and after he was already teaching - revealed that he had pled guilty to grand larceny, according to the report.

When Melissa Kantor, then-Dean of Faculty, and Vince Tompkins, then-Head of School, found out about this, they kept Nguyen on staff and informed no one else, the report said.

In 2021, Nguyen even got a promotion to a full-time math teacher, up from his temporary 'Classroom Assistant' role, according to the report.

'Tompkins and Kantor decided to hire Nguyen, in part, because of their view that Saint Ann’s as an institution “believes in second chances” and hiring someone with a criminal record 26 was an opportunity to act in accordance with what they saw as the School’s values,' the report said. 

Tompkins recently retired from his job leading the controversy-ridden school. Kantor has now become the assistant head at Trinity School this fall.

And Yusuf-Morales, who allegedly pushed the hardest to hire Nguyen, left Saint Ann's this summer and is now working at a charter school in Brooklyn, the New York Times reported.

The NYT cited her LinkedIn profile as evidence of this, but this social media page has either been deleted or made private.

The report claims Maureen Yusuf-Morales (pictured) was the one who advocated Saint Ann's administrators to hire Nguyen in August 2020, two weeks after she appeared on a podcast discussing anti-racist education

Yusuf-Morales has also worked as a DEI trainer and appeared on an episode of the Nonprofit Lowdown podcast on July 23, 2020, to discuss anti-racist education and parenting with host Rhea Wong.

This podcast was posted exactly two weeks before she would recommend hiring Nguyen, who is Asian, describing him as her 'mentee,' a 'long time friend,' and 'brilliant,' according to the report.

She also allegedly insisted that Nguyen was a 'reformed' criminal who was a 'strong teacher' and 'good with children'.

DailyMail.com approached Yusuf-Morales for comment but didn't receive a response before publication.

DailyMail.com also approached the current administration of Saint Ann's for comment. 

Last week, a prosecutor with the Brooklyn District Attorney's office told the NYT that a plea deal was in the works.

In court this week, Nguyen's lawyer, Frank Rothman, said his client would face at least five years in prison. His next court date is scheduled for March 18.

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