Stuyvesant High School recently added exam cheaters and a cannibal victim to its storied legacy of alumni. Notoriety and bad press are not commonly associated with this school though. Arguably the most prestigious high school in America, Stuyvesant has a long list of notable alumni who tend to rise to the top of their given fields.

There’s also a seedier side to the ultra competitive school that isn’t likely to make it into the school bulletin. Here are the Top 7 Notorious Associations with Stuyvesant High School.

1) Teacher Guilty of Sexual Abuse – An assistant principal, Richard Plass, pled guilty in 1999 to sexually abusing a female student. Plass admitted to showing her pornographic material, exposing himself, and touching her genitals. Plass oversaw the Stuyvesant biology program that chose students to compete for the prestigious Westinghouse science competition.

Investigations revealed several other students in the Westinghouse program claimed Plass made inappropriate sexual comments to them, but they never reported him for fear of being kicked out of the program.

Plass only got 3 years probation and had to surrender his teaching license. He was still able to retire and collect his full pension though.

2) Stuyvesant Music Teacher Tries to Sell Guns to Hamas – Former Stuyvesant High music teacher, Theophilus Burroughs, was busted in 2010 for selling guns to people he thought were tied to Hamas and Hezbollah. Burroughs taught at Stuyvesant from 2002-2003. What happend after his arrest is a mystery. His name doesn’t appear in any records of the New York State Unified Court System for being a defendant in a criminal matter.

According to New York attorney Patrick Murphy that could mean he gave a sealed disposition which wouldn’t be accesible to the public, or the charges could have been dropped as terrorist charges are typically prosecuted in Federal courts. He was arraigned in the New York State Court by the Bronx County district attorney’s office.

3) Ronald Poppo Victim of “Miami Zombie” – In May Ronald Poppo, class of 1964, was captured on video getting half of his face eaten off by Rudy Eugene, who was high on bath salts. Poppo, who suffers from mental illness, has been homeless for decades and his own family thought he had died years ago. His life at Stuyvesant, before decades of vagrancy in Florida, consisted of a Bronze Scholarship Certificate, being a member of Latin Club, and working in the guidance office of his alma mater.

4) Cuddle Puddle Feature by New York Magazine – Teen sex isn’t new or groundbreaking, but when Stuyvesant High School is the subject of a news piece on teen sex, it is. The 2006 feature revealed the school’s second floor hallway as a place was where students gathered everyday during a free period for a “cuddle puddle,” where “there [were] girls petting girls and girls petting guys and guys petting guys.” Beliefs surrounding sexual orientation aside, it’s a safe bet that no parent or school staff member was pleased to read about their children/students sexual behavior in a major publication.

5) Nayeem Ahsan Expelled For Texting Copy of Exam to Fellow Students – Stuyvesant junior Nayeem Ahsan was expelled after texting Regents exam questions and answers to dozens of his classmates. In addition to being the most recent Stuyvesant student to earn news notoriety, he’s also the one behind 70 other students having to retake exams and school administrators having to rethink how to enforce the city’s cellphone ban in schools.

6) “Hackers” Film about Gifted Students at Fictitious Stanton High School – The film’s plot about gifted high school students involved in a corporate conspiracy and being pursued by the Secret Service isn’t actually based on Stuyvesant High School, but it was filmed there. We won’t make a leap to say the film was even loosely based on Stuyvesant, but that doesn’t mean that one couldn’t. Considering the film was released four months after a few Stuyvesant students did get caught in a computer hacking scandal, we will say that comparisons might be drawn.

7) Stuyvesant Fights For It’s Right To Party – “We have no record of Adam Horovitz or any other Beastie Boy attending Stuyvesant.” It was 25 years after the Beastie Boys breakthrough 1986 record, Licensed to Ill, when Executive Director of the Stuyvesant High School Alumni Association Cindy Nieves’ statement was published in the school’s newspaper. But that couldn’t undo the fact that Adam Horovitz , aka Ad Rock, wore a Stuyvesant High School P.E. shirt in the band’s seminal “Fight for Your Right [to Party]” music video.

Some still deny it’s truth. Some go as far as saying, “now I don’t want to go [to Stuyvesant],” when finding out the truth. However, none of the Beastie Boys attended the school. And when Tipper Gore took to the Oprah Winfrey Show to villify the band, it’s likely that many at the school weren’t happy with the association being made on televisions across the country.

by Sean Murphy

*Note: Stuyvesant High School was located at 345 East 15th Street in 1986, not it’s current location of 345 Chambers Street.