26-year-old Miles McNeal, who fetishizes vampires and posts communist propaganda online, was arrested Feb. 1, 2024, after being allowed to sexually abuse children for three years.
The victims' attorney tells The New York Post staff and supervisors at PS 185 and its after-school program, Beacon @ 185, "perfectly well knew that the person who was abusing the kids was taking them into rooms by himself almost every day, and their tacit approval of this behavior is abominable and speaks to the lack of care and vigilance to protect vulnerable children."
Laurie Higgins, education writer for Breakthrough Ideas, says this situation reveals a serious flaw in the Harlem school's hiring policy.
"We are seeing way too many of these kinds of stories of sexual abuse committed by public school teachers," she laments. "The administrator ('social-emotional learning' instructor Monica Vargas, who is related to McNeal by marriage) had the audacity to say that this was a good thing that this child was crying because it means she's getting in touch with her feelings."
After failing to enforce rules that could have prevented the abuse, Beacon @ 185 Director Porscha McNeill and PS 185 Principal Andrea Woodhouse-Spence did not report the allegations against McNeal to the DOE or the NYPD, and they did nothing to alert parents.
As punishment, Principal Woodhouse-Spence and the parent coordinator were simply reassigned, but only after parents expressed their outrage at a closed-door meeting.
McNeal pleaded not guilty when he was arrested a year ago. He posted bail, and he still advertises "toddler childcare" and other tutoring services on TutorExtra.
"Teachers' unions have made it extraordinarily difficult to fire a teacher," Higgins notes. "The unions actively work to kind of facilitate this, to support this teacher, and to prevent them from getting fired."
The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan Federal Court, seeks unspecified damages and highlights the trauma experienced by the victims.
