Prep School Teacher Pressured Girls to Send Sexual Images. Then Students Saw Them on Snapchat: Lawsuit

The teenage victims of a former New York City private school teacher are suing him, the school and other school administrators, months after he was sentenced for posing as a student and coercing them into sending him nude images and videos that he later made public.

Two girls, both 13 at the time, detail first being contacted by 39-year-old Winston Nguyen through Snapchat and the lasting effects of the ordeal described as "a revenge porn blast with dozens of explicit pictures," according to the complaint filed in the Eastern District of New York on Thursday, Jan. 29 and obtained by PEOPLE. The New York Times was first to report the news.

The complaint alleges Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn and its senior leaders "violated their own policies and ignored obvious red flags in hiring, promoting, and failing to supervise Winston Nguyen," reads a press release shared by Perry Law. The individual administrators named are current and former school leaders Vincent Tompkins, Kenyatte Reid, Melissa Kantor and Maureen Yusuf-Morales.

In March 2025, Nguyen pleaded guilty to use of a child in a sexual performance as a sexually motivated felony and five counts of endangering the welfare of a child. He is currently serving a seven year sentence and will register as a sex offender upon his release, the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.

Prosecutors said Nguyen presented himself as a teenage boy while having conversations with six children on Snapchat who went to various elite independent schools in Brooklyn between October 2022 and May 2024. He also reportedly sent nude images and videos that depicted a teenage boy masturbating to the victims.

According to the complaint, one of the girls recalled those conversations, claiming Nguyen — who communicated with her during school hours — told her she "made him horny" and that he would ask for "a blowjob" if they met in person. He also suggested a "threesome" with one of her other friends he was talking to on Snapchat, the complaint states.

The victims said Nguyen eventually pressured them to send nude photos and videos of themselves masturbating, but that after they blocked his account, the sexually explicit content was sent to students at his school without their consent.

"The girls felt pressure to comply because they perceived Nguyen to be a peer in their social circles with significant social clout given his account’s large network of Saint Ann’s connections,” the compliant states.

Nguyen also allegedly tried to guilt his targets, pretending to be anguished by the ongoing divorce between his made-up parents, per the complaint.

He was arrested in June 2024 and was ultimately terminated from Saint Ann's, school officials said at the time, PEOPLE previously reported.

The complaint also alleges that Saint Ann’s was aware the explicit images were circulating in the school community — and that the perpetrator was Nguyen — but did not report it to authorities or "even alert parents beyond the ones whose children were immediately affected."

Additionally, the suit references a report by law firm Debevoise & Plimpton, which concluded that Saint Ann's hired Nguyen without sufficient vetting, despite knowing that he had been convicted of exploiting vulnerable people in his care.

When teachers, parents, and students expressed concerns about his behavior — including bribing students with gifts and showing up unannounced to children's homes — Saint Ann’s ostracized the whistleblowers as “racist,” “anti-progressive,” and insufficiently committed to “restorative justice," per the complaint.

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In a letter shared with the school community after the filing of the lawsuit, school officials Kenyatte Reid and Mary Watson said, “The complaint includes several misrepresentations of Saint Ann’s role, and we will address and dispute this delicate matter through the appropriate legal channels," the New York Times reported.

PEOPLE reached out to Saint Ann’s School for comment on the lawsuit Thursday but did not immediately hear back.

“Saint Ann’s masquerades as a progressive force for social justice – but it is just another powerful institution that coddled a predator who abused its own students. Joan and Jane are fighting back, and they’re going to hold Saint Ann’s accountable," the girls' attorney, Joshua Perry, said in a statement to PEOPLE.

Nguyen became a one-time champion on Jeopardy! in 2014, winning just over $10,000 and later earning $1,000 for a third-place finish in the next episode.

At his sentencing last year, the victims shared how Nguyen's actions had affected them.

"I constantly worry that my peers and people around me have seen the naked photos you disgustingly collected of me…Your actions will scar me for the rest of my life, my trust has been shattered," one of the girls said, per the complaint. The other added, "[M]y image and my self-worth will always be tainted by this."