FORT GREENE — The investigation into Brooklyn Tech teacher Sean Shaynak, who is charged with victimizing six teenage girls over five years, was kept quiet because the licensed pilot was considered a flight risk, according to school officials and a law-enforcement source.
The school's principal, Randy Asher, said he was unaware of the allegations until Shaynak's initial arrest Aug. 26, even though it was an open secret among students that the 44-year-old teacher would give out cigarettes and was overly friendly.
School officials addressed more than 200 Brooklyn Tech parents at a meeting last Thursday for the first time since Shaynak's August arrest, when he was charged with sending a lewd Snapchat picture of his genitals to a 16-year-old student.
PTA co-president Illene Jaroslaw told parents that Asher and other officials at the Fort Greene high school were tight-lipped about the investigation because authorities were afraid Shaynak would flee.
"Mr. Shaynak was an aviation teacher and had roots in many states and there was a risk he could flee — there was a great deal of concern about that," she said. "Principal Asher's hands were tied."
Shaynak, who ran an aerospace after-school club and is a registered pilot and flight instructor, was re-arrested on Tuesday on additional charges that include taking a 15-year-old student to a nude beach, inappropriately touching and kissing students and giving alcohol and cigarettes to minors, according to the Brooklyn DA.
It was at that point that Asher informed parents, via a post on the school's website, that the matter would be discussed at a PTA meeting Thursday night.
The post has since been removed.
Asher apologized to parents that he could not discuss the investigation earlier.
"The timeline was very rapid and very secretive," Asher told parents. "It was a matter of the NYPD, the FBI and the DA’s office."
