A longtime New York City principal — recently arrested for allegedly fondling two teachers — is facing fresh claims that he turned his public school into a “sexual playground” and once groped a teen student, according to a new bombshell lawsuit.
William Bassell, 66, principal at the Academy of American Studies in Queens since 2011, is accused of sexually harassing the 17-year-old as well as three women working at the high school in their federal suit.
“While Bassell has been treating a New York City high school as his personal playground for sexual fulfillment, he has enjoyed the robust protections of the DOE,” states the suit, referring to the city Department of Education.
“With the benefit of the DOE’s deliberate indifference, Bassell — widely known as ‘Creepy Bill,’ ‘Creepy Bassell,’ or simply ‘Creep’ by students and faculty members at the Academy — has, for more than a decade, targeted female employees and at least one female student, singling them out for illegal touching, texting, and commentary.”
Bassell was placed on leave from his longtime role at the Astoria school after he was arrested in May on charges of sex abuse and forcible touching — but remains employed by the city as a principal, the suit claims. His salary was a whopping $204,305 last year, public records show.
Bassell’s “litany of sexually harassing acts” included groping women’s inner thighs, asking about their sex lives, “including questions about their virginity and masturbation,” frequent references to ejaculation and oral sex and brazenly staring at women — “especially their breasts and buttocks.”
The suit also claims Bassell took a depraved interest in the sexual proclivities of his students, commenting on which of them he suspected of performing sexual acts together.
“The only reason [student X] comes to school is because [student Y] sucks his d–k,” Bassell allegedly once told a group of female employees, the suit claims.
Despite years of complaints from employees and students to those overseeing the DOE, “they were either stonewalled or intimidated into silence,” the suit claims.
City and DOE officials did not immediately return a request for comment Monday. Attempts to reach Bassell were unsuccessful.
The four women who filed the suit, using their full names in the legal filing, are current DOE employees, including former student Khiabet Leal.
During a class trip to the Metropolitan Opera in February 2015, the suit claims Bassell allegedly groped and rubbed the then-17-year-old Leal’s inner thigh “for several moments,” directly touching her skin under her skirt.
She told teachers about the horrifying alleged incident a year later, and the educators reported it to the DOE, according to the suit.
But DOE investigators allegedly tried to intimidate the teen to keep quiet, questioning her about her account without other adults present.
“Isn’t he writing you a recommendation letter for college?” the investigators allegedly asked, according to the suit.
When Bassell’s May arrest became public, former teachers reached out to Leal and “expressed deep regret for not doing more to protect her when she was in high school,” the filing states.
Another plaintiff, social worker Tara Murphy, claimed Bassell allegedly groped her while also repeatedly subjecting her to sexual comments and requests for disgusting gossip on student sex lives — while offering his unsolicited pondering on the topic.
In one alleged encounter in 2024, Murphy said Bassell began rubbing her back inside her office, touching her bra, and brought “his lips up to her ear” to repeat the name of a soup he wanted to order from a Chinese restaurant, according to the suit.
“Murphy froze, terrified and disgusted by Bassell’s behavior,” the filing states. “She could feel his lips on her ear as he repeated ‘suck me yum.’”
Afterward, she collapsed to the floor, “hyperventilating and sobbing,” according to the complaint.
Bassell also once allegedly claimed that a girl attending the school had agreed to perform oral sex on another student, and that another had “performed a sexual act in a coffee shop bathroom,” and asked Murphy if she had ever done anything similar, the suit claims.
When Murphy went to the United Federation of Teachers union for support, she was cryptically warned by unnamed officials that Bassell, who joined the DOE 40 years ago, was “Teflon Don,” because “nothing sticks to him,” the suit alleges.
The UFT, which is not named as a plaintiff in the suit, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Similar claims against Bassell were made in 2020 by an anonymous Instagram account called “AAS Takes a Stand,” the suit notes, with at least one post claiming to have witnessed the principal’s alleged inappropriate treatment of female staff.
One post, allegedly by a student, claimed he “would literally call me out of class to talk to me, just to rub my arms and thighs for 30 min,” an allegation also made by Leal in the lawsuit.
“I represent a lot of sexual harassment victims, but there are not many cases where the accused is so well protected,” said the women’s’ attorney, Amy Robinson.
Bassell’s next appearance in his ongoing criminal case in Queens court is set for Thursday, the first day of public school.
— Additional reporting by Amanda Woods and Reuven Fenton
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