Brooklyn Teacher Is Accused of Abusing Girls for 3 Years
(It is a never ending challenge to keep predators away from children DF)
The investigation began with one explicit picture, sent by a teacher at one of New York’s elite public high schools to one of his female students through a messaging app.
That soon led the police to search the teacher’s phones and computers, where, law enforcement officials said, they unearthed a much larger trove: thousands of text messages to students, many of them inappropriate, and a video of the teacher, Sean Shaynak, having sex with a teenager.
Through interviews and the material on those devices, a portrait emerged of a teacher who befriended certain students when they were sophomores and juniors, offering them cigarettes and alcohol. Prosecutors said he sent them indecent photographs of himself, invited them to his apartment, took one to a nude beach and took another to a sex club. He had forcible sex with one of them when she was 18, the Brooklyn district attorney’s office said.
On Tuesday, Mr. Shaynak, 44, who taught math and science at Brooklyn Technical High School, was arraigned in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn on 36 charges involving six teenage girls, including sexual abuse, forcible touching, kidnapping, endangering the welfare of a child and disseminating indecent material.
Mr. Shaynak, who pleaded not guilty to all of the charges, was jailed after the hearing. He faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted of the most serious charges.
He had taught for about five years at Brooklyn Tech, one of the eight selective public high schools that admit freshmen based on a single exam. Mayor Bill de Blasio’s son, Dante, is currently a senior there.
The charges, brought by District Attorney Kenneth P. Thompson, outlined a frightening pattern of behavior that the authorities said took place from 2011 to 2014 and, until recently, had apparently gone undetected. There was no indication Tuesday that any of it had been reported to officials at the school or the Education Department.
The photograph that first brought Mr. Shaynak to the attention of law enforcement officials was sent to a 16-year-old student at the end of June, officials said. Mr. Shaynak, they said, sent it using Snapchat, which sends messages that disappear after a few seconds, but the student captured it by taking a photograph of the message with her cellphone. She told an adult, who alerted the authorities. That led to Mr. Shaynak’s arrest in August on charges including disseminating indecent material to a minor.
After that arrest, investigators seized three computers and two phones, and used text messages — which they said included inappropriate conversations about nude beaches and threesomes — as well as videos and photographs to identify six additional victims, ranging in age from 13 to 19.
Joseph Mancino, a Brooklyn prosecutor, told Justice Martin P. Murphy on Tuesday that Mr. Shaynak had "looked to groom these students" with the text messages, trips, alcohol and cigarettes. He gave one student perfect scores on classroom quizzes, though she routinely left questions blank, Mr. Mancino said.
Mr. Mancino said that Mr. Shaynak had a four-month sexual relationship with one of the six students, whom he once took to a sex club in a different state, where he had sex with other patrons. He also took her on what the prosecutor called a "terror ride" from Queens to Brooklyn, when the student became so frightened that she ran from the car and hid from Mr. Shaynak in some nearby bushes while he was "screaming and banging on the car." Mr. Shaynak also threatened to tell the girl’s parents about their relationship, Mr. Mancino said.
Another student accompanied Mr. Shaynak to a nude beach in New Jersey, after Mr. Shaynak told her they were going to pick up school supplies, law enforcement officials said. They exchanged 10,000 text messages, in which he repeatedly mentioned the nude beach. She also visited his home, where he gave her so much hard liquor that she passed out, officials said. Mr. Shaynak encouraged that student to have sex with another female student, Mr. Mancino said.
The sexual encounters occurred after the two students reached the legal age of consent, 17 in New York, but in one instance, he forced one of them to have sex against her will, prosecutors said.
While law enforcement officials recited the details of the new charges in court, Mr. Shaynak stood silently. His lawyer, Kimberly Summers, told the judge that her client denied any wrongdoing and that he had no previous criminal history. Mr. Shaynak had worked on special projects with certain students, she said, adding that one of those students "was routinely contacting him."
Justice Murphy set bail for Mr. Shaynak at $1 million bond or $600,000 cash, which he had not posted Tuesday afternoon.
A Maryland court issued a six-month restraining order against Mr. Shaynak in 2005, but attempts to contact the woman who requested the order were unsuccessful on Tuesday, and details of why she had it were not immediately available.
After his arrest in August, Mr. Shaynak was removed from Brooklyn Tech, though he continued to receive his salary of $52,744 per year, as is common before a teacher goes through the formal disciplinary or firing process.
On Tuesday afternoon, as students flooded out of Brooklyn Tech onto a picturesque brownstone street, some said that rumors of inappropriate contact between Mr. Shaynak and female students were not uncommon, though none had specific knowledge of any relationships.
In a statement, the Education Department deplored Mr. Shaynak’s alleged conduct.
"These alleged actions are completely unacceptable, and have no place in, or outside of, our schools," Devora Kaye, a department spokeswoman, said in an email. "The DOE took swift action to immediately reassign Mr. Shaynak following his initial arrest. He is not, and will not be, in contact with students."
Before August, the only complaint lodged against Mr. Shaynak with the department came in June 2012, when he was accused of berating a student. The claims were substantiated and he received a letter of discipline.
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