DOE Accused Of Abetting Sexual Misconduct By Ex-Brooklyn Tech Teacher

The city Department of Education (DOE) is being hit with a lawsuit that accuses it — via its employees at Brooklyn Technical High School — of ignoring and abetting the sexual abuse of at least seven female students by a now former teacher, Sean Shaynak.

A lawsuit filed on Saturday, January 10 by a 22-year-old former student, named in federal court documents as V.V., alleges that the DOE failed in its Title IX duties to provide a safe educational environment free of gender discrimination.

It charges that Brooklyn Tech administrators ignored multiple reports from staff and members of the local business community that Shaynak had behaved inappropriately with female students in and around school grounds between 2010 and 2012, and that Principal Randy Asher even ignored an instance where Shaynak — dressed in drag — flashed female students at a school Halloween dance.

As noted in the New York Post, V.V.’s attorney, Jeff Herman, stated that:

“He was not only a popular teacher,” but his aeronautics program “was really helpful to the school raising money. . . Unfortunately we think that’s one of the reasons they kept Shaynak around, was putting money over the safety of students.”

Shaynak was arrested in August, 2014, after sending a cell phone photo of his genitals to a former student, who told friends and her parents, who notified authorities. As noted by the New York Times, he now faces 36 charges, “including kidnapping, criminal sexual act, obscenity, endangering the welfare of a child and sexual abuse, and faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted of the most serious charges. He has pleaded not guilty.”

The latest lawsuit also notes that Shaynak had previously been accused in 2005 of beating an 11-year-old Maryland boy for throwing rocks at his house.