Exclusive | NYC principal sexually abused student ‘nearly every day’: lawsuit

A former Manhattan public school principal groomed and sexually abused one of his students “nearly every day,” calling the girl his “princess” and “baby,” according to a federal lawsuit.

The accuser, who now lives in Maryland, claims Brett Kimmel groped her, pressured her to perform oral sex and attempted to have sex with her just before her 18th birthday, she claimed in court papers.

Kimmel allegedly “set his sights” on the girl, identified in filings as Jane Doe, when she was in eighth grade at the Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School more than a decade ago.

He barraged the victim with dozens of inappropriate texts and emails a day her freshman year, and later asked her to send him shirtless selfies, she claimed. The messages allegedly continued even after the teen’s older sister confronted Kimmel about his deranged notes in summer 2012.

Kimmel also drove the Bronx girl to and from school, molesting her during the rides during her sophomore and junior years, she claimed in her April Manhattan federal court lawsuit against Kimmel and the city Department of Education.

The woman alleged her prolonged abuse was the result of the DOE’s “negligent supervision,” including failing to train staff and faculty to report the pair’s suspicious behavior and ignoring students’ comments about the abuse. 

The Special Commissioner of Investigation for city schools said it had no reports on file for Kimmel, who collected $182,844 in fiscal year 2015 and left the DOE in fall 2015, according to city payroll records. 

The woman decided to sue years after the abuse ended “to hold the bad actor accountable, so he doesn’t get to do this again to someone else,” her attorney Julia Kuan told The Post. 

The woman did not report the abuse to the police at the time, Kuan noted, but declined to explain further over client confidentiality.

She is seeking unspecified damages, according to court papers.

Kimmel, who now works in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., as an education consultant, denied the sexual abuse allegations, according to his lawyer Alan Sash, and demanded in court filings that the case be dismissed. 

Additional reporting by Susan Edelman