A 50-year-old teacher at an elite school in the US city of New York has resigned after being accused of sexually abusing a pupil for two years.
Mara Naaman resigned four days after Dalton School received a letter written ‘on behalf of a former student’ claiming the English teacher abused them between 2020 and 2022, the New York Post reported on Sunday. Parents at the posh private school in The Big Apple were alerted in an email from principal Jose De Jesús which warned them that there may be other victims.
“We write to notify you of a serious matter. Last week we received a letter from a former Dalton student that outlines allegations of sexual abuse by a Dalto high school teacher, Mara Naaman, occurring between 2020-2022,” according to a May 9 email from head of school José De Jesús and board of trustees president Aly Jeddy to the school community.
“We received the letter on Thursday and promptly placed Ms. Naaman on leave consulted with legal counsel and filed a report with law enforcement. On Monday Ms. Naaman resigned. We have retained an external investigative firm, T&M L LLC, experts in the field of sexual misconduct, to conduct an investigation into reported misconduct,” it added.
The school said that they were not sure if the allegations were true. “We are only providing the name of the teacher so anyone with relevant information can provide such information. Our primary focus as educators is the safety of students in our community – past and present – and we are responding to these allegations in a manner true to our school’s values. Our priority is determining the veracity of these claims and determining whether there are other allegations of abuse from other members of the community,” the email read.
The New York teacher caught in sexual abuse claims endorsed an eight-page anti-racism manifesto in 2020, advocating compensation for students of colour in promotional material and course cancellation if Black students underperform. Before joining Dalton, Naaman taught at Columbia University, Hofstra University, and Williams College, where she earned tenure in 2013. A Fulbright scholar, she holds a PhD from Columbia and conducted research at Cairo University. Her scholarly contributions include publications in the Journal of Arabic Literature. Naaman, based in Manhattan and hailing from Michigan, is also a parent.
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