Several members of a Horace Mann alumni group are clamoring for the ouster of the Wall Street exec who heads the school’s board of trustees, charging he’s trying to block an independent probe into sexual abuses at the elite Bronx academy from the 1970s to the 1990s.
In a September e-mail to Alumni Council President Justin Lerer obtained by The Post, alumnus Herbert Nass pushed to get rid of Steven Friedman, who works for a hedge fund at EOS Capitol.
“It is crystal clear to me that the serious problems facing HM have been horribly mishandled by the powers that be at the school,” wrote Nass, an attorney.
The Horace Mann Alumni Council, known for its fundraising prowess, met last month. Members wanted to vote to oust Friedman, who has been chairman for at least seven years, but there were not enough people present for a vote.
In a follow-up e-mail, alum Peter Brown said, “It’s time for a change.”
But Lerer said he still supports Friedman.
“I do not plan to lobby for Steve Friedman’s impeachment and, in fact, as a trustee, I fully support Steve and my fellow trustees,” Lerer told The Post.
Many alumni were disenchanted when school officials announced last month that they would not conduct an investigation of sexual predators who worked at the school for decades.
More than 20 teachers and administrators have been accused of molesting almost 50 students.
Other alumni said they’re appalled the school — in the midst of a fund-raising push for $50 million — offered settlements as low as $20,000 to some of the 27 victims.
Horace Mann is estimated to have paid out between $4 million and $5 million in settlements.
School spokesman Jon Elsen denied there was a push to oust Friedman, saying it’s “part of a campaign by a small number of Horace Mann . . . alumni who are unhappy about how [the school] has responded to evidence of sexual abuse in the past.”
Nine board members worth billions resigned in the past year when Friedman reversed a tentative agreement to “do right by the victims” by conducting an internal investigation, sources told The Post.
The scandal has put a damper on fund-raising, the school has acknowledged.
The Horace Mann Action Coalition is funding an independent investigation, led by former state Supreme Court Justice Leslie Crocker Snyder. She has accused the school’s lawyers of not allowing her to speak freely with Principal Thomas Kelly or Friedman.