Investigation Reveals Years Of Sexual Misconduct At Elite Saint Ann's School
March 26, 2019, noon
'Saint Ann's has always been a place that prides itself on listening to and celebrating our students ... we failed to be true to our own vision of children and of education.'
Saint Ann's School in Brooklyn Heights.
Saint Ann's, a prestigious K-12 private school in Brooklyn Heights, has wrapped an investigation into decades' worth of employees' inappropriate behavior toward students. In a letter sent to parents and alumni on Monday, Head of School Vincent Tompkins and Board of Trustees President Mino Capossela said that out of 19 former staff and faculty members whose names came up during the inquest, investigators identified six men "who engaged in sexual misconduct or serious boundary violations" with Saint Ann's students.
Founded in 1965, the school began looking into employee behavior in October 2017, after the administration caught wind of an alumni Facebook post about Stanley Bosworth, Saint Ann's founding headmaster. Bosworth, as the NY Times reported in 2010, "spoke freely with students about sex and prided himself on 'scandalizing and scaring away the bourgeoisie.'" He created the liberal atmosphere for which the highly selective school is famous, but according to this alum's account, he may have taken too many liberties himself: The Facebook post alleged that Bosworth had rubbed the student's leg during a private meeting in his office.
The allegation prompted Saint Ann's to hire outside investigators, who ultimately deemed the report against Bosworth credible, although they could not corroborate it. (Bosworth died in 2011.)
As a Saint Ann's alum who was at the school through the 1970s, i have a LOT of thoughts about this. My grandmother co-founded the school & always said she rued the day she hired Stanley Bosworth. Who was a supportive and visionary man in many ways. But the sex was, yes, an Issue.
— Anne Midgette (@classicalbeat) March 26, 2019
Still, in four of the six incidents mentioned in the letter—which include non-consensual kissing, inappropriate touching, and sex between teachers and students—investigators said Bosworth knew or may have known was going on, and took few meaningful steps to address it. In the 1970s, for example, "a Saint Ann's faculty member engaged in sexual intercourse with a high school student," according to the letter; Bosworth allegedly reprimanded the teacher for his behavior, but ultimately left the matter there. That employee retired about three decades later, in the mid-2000s.
In another instance, reportedly known to Bosworth and the administration, an educator allegedly crossed a line with two students. That teacher left the school shortly after the second transgression, but continued to teach elsewhere, raising questions about how much information Saint Ann's may have shared with his future employers:
In the 1990s a Saint Ann's faculty member engaged in inappropriate physical contact and boundary-crossing behavior with a female high school student.
The investigation found that this behavior was reported to administrators at the school around the time of its occurrence by the victim and others, but no disciplinary action was undertaken.
In the late 1980s and 1990s this same teacher engaged in boundary-crossing and other inappropriate behavior with at least one female lower school student. The investigation found that Bosworth and other administrators were made aware of this behavior in the early 2000s, and the teacher resigned shortly thereafter.
This teacher is currently employed at another school and Saint Ann's informed that school that we received allegations about him. Saint Ann's has now shared the findings of our investigation with his current employer. He is the only former faculty member about whom the investigation reached a finding who we were able to establish is currently working in another K-12 school.
The letter describes the school's historically inadequate response to complaints as "a failure of our institutional culture that compounded the harm done by the initial misconduct," and characterizes the investigation as a step toward improving "transparency and accountability." And indeed, after Saint Ann's undertook the investigation in 2017, it learned that John Smith, the former head of its middle school, had reportedly been serving underage students alcohol and weed in his home. Smith resigned in January 2018, and the community was made aware of the situation in a separate letter from Tompkins.
"Saint Ann's has always been a place that prides itself on listening to and celebrating our students—their intellect, their passions, their potential. In these instances, we failed to be true to our own vision of children and of education," Monday's letter states. "We acknowledge our failures with deep regret and with a renewed commitment to ensuring that those who are in our care will be safe."
