Teacher sentenced to 7 years; elite Brooklyn private school sued for negligence

NEW YORK (AP) — A new federal lawsuit accuses Brooklyn's Saint Ann's School and several administrators of negligence regarding a former teacher who threatened two minor girls with "revenge porn." The complaint alleges former teacher Winston Nguyen coerced the girls into sending sensitive photos and videos when they were 13, then shared the material with other students.

Nguyen pleaded guilty last year to one felony and several misdemeanors and is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence. The civil lawsuit targets Saint Ann's School and its administrators, claiming they were negligent and failed to act despite multiple warning signs about Nguyen's behavior.

The lawsuit asserts school leadership knew Nguyen had a criminal record when they hired him in 2020. Saint Ann's, a private school with annual tuition of approximately $60,000, is known for its high Ivy League acceptance rates and for educating children of celebrities and Wall Street executives.

The institution has been embroiled in scandal for nearly two years. After the lawsuit was filed, school leadership sent a letter to the community refuting the allegations.

The Winston Nguyen case has evolved beyond a straightforward criminal prosecution into a definitive test of institutional liability for Saint Ann’s School. While Nguyen’s individual guilt has been established in criminal court, a burgeoning civil lawsuit now shifts the focus to a systemic failure at one of New York’s most elite educational institutions. The central allegation is that the school, despite its prestige and high tuition, prioritized brand preservation over the fundamental safety of its students.

The litigation outlines a pattern of institutional negligence that challenges standard vetting and reporting protocols. According to court filings, the school allegedly hired Nguyen despite a prior criminal record, ignored specific warnings regarding the circulation of explicit imagery among the student body, and failed to engage law enforcement. Perhaps most striking is the detail from a 2024 internal report suggesting that parents and faculty who attempted to raise alarms were systematically marginalized. The report indicates that administrative staff may have weaponized social justice rhetoric to stifle dissent, characterizing legitimate safeguarding concerns as "racist" or "insufficiently progressive."

This case fits into a broader national trend in the United States, where the legal landscape is shifting toward holding powerful entities—from academic institutions to athletic federations—accountable for "enabling environments" that facilitate abuse. The upcoming legal proceedings will likely hinge on whether Saint Ann’s committed a breach of fiduciary duty by allowing a predatory environment to persist. As the discovery phase proceeds, the case stands as a cautionary tale of how institutional culture and the misuse of ideological discourse can undermine mandatory reporting requirements and student protections.

The fact that news reports identified Winston Nguyen as the "son of Vietnamese immigrants" has resonated deeply within the Vietnamese-American community. While mainstream media treated his background as a mere footnote, it has become a focal point of uncomfortable discussion across our community, from the family dinner table to the local nail salons and phở shops of Little Saigon. This case complicates the "model minority myth," serving as a sobering reminder that our community is not immune to the social pressures and criminal issues facing the rest of the country. Particularly troubling are the allegations that those who initially voiced concerns were dismissed or labeled as "racists," creating a complex dilemma: how can we, as a community, confront misconduct from within without allowing identity politics to obscure the facts?