A left-wing, vampire-obsessed after-school program teacher is accused of sexually abusing two young girls for years at a Harlem school in New York and filming child sex abuse material, according to a new lawsuit reported on by the New York Post.
“Miles McNeal, 26, an after-school program teacher whose online alter ego pushed communist propaganda and fetishized vampires, allegedly touched and photographed young students’ naked bodies, had them assume sexual positions, and showed them pictures of the genitalia of other kids while threatening them to stay silent, the victims said in court papers,” the report states.
The lawsuit further alleges that staff and supervisors at PS185 and its after-school program, Beacon @ 185, failed to follow rules requiring staffers to never be alone with children and for empty classrooms to remain locked. The lawsuit alleges that these failures enabled McNeal to abuse the young girls for three years.
The complaint also alleges that administrators did not properly punish McNeal after he was discovered by another staffer alone in an empty classroom with a second-grader straddling his lap. McNeal was reportedly suspended for one day, and the child’s father was told that his child was at fault.
McNeal ended up being arrested on Feb. 1, 2024, and charged with sexually abusing an eight-year-old girl. Court documents alleged that police found 52 electronic devices in McNeal’s possession. McNeal pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges and posted bail. That case is pending, according to the report.
One of the little girls is suicidal and both nine-year-olds are traumatized, their families said. The families said they are deeply concerned the child sex abuse material could follow the girls for the rest of their lives, they said in the lawsuit, which was filed in Manhattan Federal Court on Jan. 24 seeking unspecified damages.
“They perfectly well knew that the person who was abusing the kids was taking them into rooms by himself almost every day, and their tacit approval of this behavior is abominable and speaks to the lack of care and vigilance to protect vulnerable children,” the victims’ lawyer, Richard Emery of Emery, Celli, Brinckerhoff, Abady, Ward & Maazel, told the Post.
McNeal, who resides in Yonkers, still advertises “toddler childcare” and other tutoring-related services on TutorExtra, according to the report. His YouTube account reportedly has “sexually charged videos” about vampires.
The families of the little girls allege in the lawsuit that McNeal was able to pull the children from class “with astonishing frequency” and that he would “radio other staff members seeking coverage — so that he could take [the victims] and others out of class to groom and abuse them.” They allege in the legal complaint against the city the Department of Education, and the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center that McNeal targeted multiple victims.
The parents further allege that other school staff and leadership enabled the abuse.
“One staffer — ‘social-emotional learning’ instructor Monica Vargas, who is related to McNeal by marriage — appeared to ‘facilitate’ his depraved behavior, according to the lawsuit,” the report states. “In her role, Vargas would ‘interrogate’ kids ‘about particularly traumatic or emotionally charged topics in their lives,’ such as the death of a family pet, and then relay the information to McNeal ‘to facilitate his grooming,'” the lawsuit states, according to the report.
Vargas allegedly once covered for McNeal while he was alone with a child whose mother had come to pick her up, according to the lawsuit. Vargas allegedly told the girl’s mother “that is was wonderful [she] was engaging with her feelings,” when the little girl ran downstairs crying.
The mother notified the after-school program director Porscha McNeill and school principal Andrea Woodhouse-Spence of the allegedly abuse, but the school officials never reported the allegations to the Department of Education of the NYPD and did not alert other parents, according to the report. The little girl’s father called other families to tell them about the allegations, after which a second little girl was discovered and her parents “immediately” reported the alleged abuse to police, the lawsuit reportedly states.
“They enabled this behavior and are if not as responsible, than more responsible for the abuse,” according to the lawsuit.
Vargas and McNeill did not respond to the Post’s request for comment.
