Prep big out after suit for raunchy trip
A POLY PREP school official has been demoted and placed on “indefinite leave” after he was accused of plying two students — including rocker Jon Bon Jovi’s son — with booze and hookers during a wild trip to Cuba, the Daily News has learned.
Steven Andersen was sanctioned days after a lawsuit was filed claiming the Poly Prep Country Day School development director led a risqué school-funded “rite of passage” Caribbean getaway for two boys. The students were identified by sources as Andersen’s son, Sebastian — and Bon Jovi’s son Jesse Bongiovi, who graduated from the scandalscarred Brooklyn prep school two years ago.
In a Tuesday email to parents and alumni, the Manhattan school’s board of trustees cited Andersen (inset) for exercising “poor judgment.” But the board insisted that a school-sponsored investigation turned up no evidence that he supplied prostitutes to his teen charges.
“The school determined that at no time did either of the Poly students on the trip have sexual relations of any kind with any prostitutes in Cuba, nor was there any evidence that Mr. Andersen had ever tried to engage prostitutes on their behalf,” the email reads. “The investigation also determined Mr. Andersen had exercised poor judgment in certain instances while in Cuba as a representative of Poly.”
Anderson was “disciplined” in 2013 after school officials learned of the late 2012 trip. But his punishment was increased after an underling, Lisa Della Pietra, filed a suit Thursday claiming the Cuban bender was covered up by the school “to protect a ‘high profile’ celebrity parent.”
Andersen is apparently not the only casualty of the school’s latest black eye. Board of trustees chair Scott Smith retired in the wake of the scandal, officials said in the Tuesday email.