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CUNY Professor Tied to Sex and Drug Scandal Returning to Teaching

Ric Curtis was alleged to have pushed a plethora of illegal drugs on students with other professors.

A John Jay College of Criminal Justice professor who was implicated in an alleged drug-dealing and student-sex scandal will return to teaching at the school in 2025, reported the New York Post. In 2018, two students claimed Ric Curtis, an anthropology teacher at the City University of New York, pushed illegal drugs on them, including heroin, cocaine, marijuana, and groped them. Also implicated were fellow tenured faculty members Barry Spunt and Anthony Marcus and adjunct professor Leonardo Dominguez. According to a 2019 lawsuit, the four professors allegedly ran an operation called “The Swamp,” which created “a cesspool of sexism, misogyny, sexual harassment and illegal drug use,” among other claims. The taxpayer funded university placed the faculty on paid leave while investigating the allegations, ultimately finding that Curtis and his colleagues engaged in “unprofessional conduct” in violation of the school’s policies. Although John Jay moved to fire the academics, an arbitrator decided that, despite Curtis’ “reckless and risky behavior,” he should be invited back to teach after a year-long unpaid suspension and additional training on the university’s policies.