RIVERDALE — The NYPD's Special Victim's Unit is asking anyone with information about alleged sexual abuse at the tony Bronx prep school Horace Mann to call them.
The move by police was prompted by a bombshell New York Times article published online June 6 about alleged sexual abuses by teachers at the Riverdale prep school — whose graduates include former governor Eliot Spitzer — in the late 1970s through early 1990s.
The victim's unit is asking that anyone with information, no matter how old, about sexual contact between adults and students at the school call them at 646-610-7272.
Accounts of the abuse surfaced in a Times article written for their Sunday magazine by Mann alumnus Amos Kamil.
Kamil interviewed 60 former students and 15 former and current staff.
He discovered alleged abuses by the school's former assistant football coach Mark Wright, who was quietly fired after a player reported inappropriate contact from him.
Former teacher Stanley Kops allegedly grabbed a student's crotch during a camping trip in 1983 and would also have "frolics" in his class where "he would allow kids to run amok in the classroom and kind of joined in the action."
The last account was in 1993 when music teacher Johannes Somary allegedly abused student Benjamin Balter.
“The article contains allegations dating back, in some instances, 30 years, long before the current administration took office, which makes it difficult to accurately respond to the factual allegations therein," said the school in a statement. "In addition, on June 13, 1984, there was a fire in the attic of the business office that destroyed some records.”
