The principal of an Brooklyn high school says school officials were unaware of allegations against the 44-year-old teacher charged with sexually preying on seven students until his arrest.
Brooklyn Technical High School Principal Randy Asher told a group of parents Thursday the school was horrified to learn about the allegations against physics and math teacher Sean Shaynak but said "it wasn't anything we had any knowledge of."
Shaynak was indicted this week on 36 charges including kidnapping, forcible touching, sexual abuse and criminal sexual act. He pleaded not guilty.
The New York Times says Asher said "this might still be going on" if it weren't for the courage of that student.
Shaynak's lawyer has declined to comment.
He was arrested in August after a student complained he had sent her an inappropriate photo. Police later executed a search warrant and found thousands of text messages and hundreds of photographs and videos that implicated him in other abuses.
Prosecutors say Shaynak, a city employee for nearly six years who has worked at Brooklyn Tech for the last five, allegedly took a 15-year-old to a nude beach in New Jersey without her parents' consent, performed a sex act on an 18-year-old student without her consent and sent photos of his genitals to four students, including two minors.
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He also allegedly touched students inappropriately and kissed them, grabbed the buttocks of a minor and gave alcohol and cigarettes to others.
The indictment also alleges Shaynak terrorized a former student with whom he had a prior relationship. He's charged with menacing, reckless endangerment, kidnapping and committing a criminal sexual act, among other offenses for allegedly victimizing six girls, who range in age from 13 to 19, between 2011 and 2014.
Mayor de Blasio's son, Dante, is a student at the school where Shaynak taught.
