‘Pervy principal’ at Bronx high school investigated over ‘deeply disturbing’ sex harassment claims from fed-up staff
A Bronx school is engulfed in a sex scandal centered around its pervy principal, who stands accused of sexually harassing female staff and having an inappropriate relationship with the assistant principal, The Post can exclusively reveal.
The Department of Education (DOE) is investigating numerous “deeply disturbing” complaints from staff at DreamYard Prep high school against principal Anthony Santiago and assistant principal Maritza Vazquez.
The complaints, obtained by The Post, include claims that one staff member was frequently and unwittingly subjected to graphic details of Santiago and Vazquez’s “amazing sex” life, then later warned she could be fired for knowing too much.
Another fed-up staff member said Santiago instructed her and a group of young female teachers to rate teaching candidates by their attractiveness and suggested another wear “tight pants to make … the boys [ejaculate] in their pants,” per the complaints.
The teacher who filed that complaint — and spoke to The Post on the condition of anonymity — claimed Santiago told staff at a new teacher orientation last year that he had chosen a career in education because he learned “the ratio of women to men in the elementary school staff was 13:1.”
She added that things “started to get a little weirder” when Santiago called her into his office, pulled out some sexy women’s clothing and said, “You would look good in this.”
“He started asking me to go to hiring events to find new teachers … [afterward] his first question was, ‘What did they look like, was she cute?'” she told The Post.
“He would just keep going, ‘Are they attractive?'”
Santiago — who is also accused in the complaints of pressuring staff to falsify attendance records and parent-student surveys — did not respond to calls or emails from The Post. He was assistant principal from 2017 but assumed leadership of the school in 2023, according to its website.
Vazquez, who joined the school in the 2023-2024 academic year, denied all allegations to The Post, adding that her relationship with Santiago was strictly professional and claiming that anything alleging otherwise was “fake.”
DreamYard Prep has an “arts-integrated curriculum that emphasizes problem solving and critical thinking.” Its majors include theater, dance, visual art and music.
The school went from being a Priority School, one of the lowest-performing in the state, to a Rise School in 2018, a distinction bestowed on improving schools. Its graduation rate the previous year was 68%, close to the city average of 74%, as reported by the New York Times.
However, for the current school year, it gains a score of 34/100 and is ranked 301 of 533 New York City public schools by US News and World Report.
In a series of text messages allegedly between Vazquez and a DreamYard staff member, the assistant principal divulged explicit details of her sexual relationship with Santiago, included in the complaint.
“We had sex again. He came inside me,” Vazquez allegedly told the 22-year-old staff member in one text message sent on January 29 this year.
“We can’t let anyone suspect anything,” she added, referring to her relationship with the principal.
In another message dated November 2023, Vazquez told her new colleague that Santiago “told me today that he wants to have a baby,” according to the complaint.
“He’s always telling me how he’s in love with me.”
“I’m deff [sic] going to get pregnant,” she wrote in another message.
The woman, who spoke to The Post on the condition of anonymity, said she was constantly uncomfortable but feared for her job as Vazquez was her boss, so she continued to accept her messages and calls at all hours of the night and on weekends.
In her complaint, she said the pair’s behavior toward her changed drastically when Santiago found out that Vazquez had been divulging details of their relationship.
“(Vazquez) said she was going to have the principal look through my personal phone to see if there was anything on it (about their alleged affair),” she told The Post, adding that she never handed over her phone.
“She stated this might result in me getting fired.”
Speaking to The Post, Vazquez claimed the allegations against her were fabricated and suggested the motive for those making them was staff being unhappy with feedback she had given them about their work.
“I’ve been having issues with staff, in terms of keeping people accountable,” Vazquez said.
“I would say this is retaliation.”
DOE spokesman Nathaniel Styer confirmed in a statement to The Post that the allegations are under investigation.
“These allegations are deeply disturbing, and we have zero tolerance for harassment,” he said.
A spokesperson for the Special Commissioner of Investigation told The Post that it had also “received numerous recent complaints regarding Principal Santiago” before referring them to DOE’s Office of Special Investigations.
DreamYard was previously at the center of another scandal in 2015 when 10th-grade teacher Jonathan Blum tried to arrange a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old, who turned out to be an undercover cop.
He was later sentenced to six months in jail, according to the Wall Street Journal.
