An English teacher at a prestigious New York school where Jeffrey Epstein once taught has resigned after she was allegedly accused of sexually abusing a student for two years. Mara Naaman, 50, resigned four days after Dalton School received a letter ‘on behalf of a former pupil’ alleging the English teacher had abused them between 2020 and 2022.
All the parents at the $61,000-a-year private school were notified three days later in an email from Principal Jose De Jesús, who warned that there might be other victims of Naaman. Former students at the K-12 school include journalist Anderson Cooper, actresses Claire Danes and Tracee Ellis Ross, and actor Chevy Chase.
Sexual Predator
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“We are only providing the name of the teacher so anyone with relevant information can provide such information,” the principal wrote in the letter alerting parents. “Our priority is determining the veracity of these claims and determining whether there are other allegations of abuse from other members of the community.”
Naaman, a mother and former Fulbright scholar who described herself as a ‘writer, scholar, humanist’, was a tenured Assistant Professor of Arabic and Comparative Literature at Williams College in Massachusetts for seven years before joining Dalton in 2017.
At the school, she taught English literature to ninth through 12th graders, and worked as a ‘house advisor’, responsible for ‘creating a safe space for conversations around personal responsibility’, according to the school’s website.
“House Advisors not only advise on academic matters but are a ‘sounding board’ for students on all matters, including social and emotional issues,” it explains.
“Moreover, the House Advisor is the main contact between Dalton and the student’s family.”
The school gained notoriety during the trial of Jeffrey Epstein when it emerged that the billionaire pedophile had worked there as a physics and math teacher in 1973, tutoring the son of former Bear Stearns chairman Alan ‘Ace’ Greenberg among others.
It was also at the center of a legal action against former principal Gardner Dunnan, who was accused in a 2018 lawsuit of sexually abusing a 14-year-old student he took into his home in the 1980s.
Dunnan allegedly allowed the girl to be admitted to the school without going through a formal application process, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit states that the girl couldn’t afford the tuition and was permitted to live with Dunnan and his wife, provided she helped them with their newborn baby at their apartment near the school.
Infamous School, Tainted Past
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Naaman, a graduate of Columbia University, was among numerous Dalton staff who signed an ‘anti-racism manifesto’ in 2020, calling for curriculum reforms before returning to classes post-pandemic.
The eight-page document demanded the hiring of 12 dedicated diversity officers, allocating half of all donations to New York’s public schools, and potentially eliminating AP classes if black students’ scores do not match those of white students.
School officials clarified that the document served as ‘thought starters’ and emphasized their existing ‘commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism, rooted in respect for all community members’ dignity’.
The school has reported the recent allegations to the police and has hired an external investigative firm, T&M USA LLC, specialists in sexual misconduct, to conduct an investigation.
Naaman’s sudden resignation has also concerned some parents who were depending on her for college recommendations for their children.
