Former MA Gym Teacher Accused of Sexually Assaulting 10 Girls Aged 6-8

A former Massachusetts gym teacher was arrested Wednesday and faces 32  charges for allegedly sexually assaulting ten little girls who were students from his first, second, and third grade classes.

Warning: This article contains disturbing details. 

Daniel Hakim, 36, of North Andover, faces “32 counts of aggravated indecent assault and battery on a child under 14,” the Salem News reported. Superior Court Judge Thomas Drechsler set his bail at $200,000.

Assistant Essex County District Attorney Haleigh Reisman told the Salem News that allegations include claims “of inappropriate touching of children’s breasts and buttocks, reaching up young girls’ shirts or down their pants, touching their buttocks or genital areas inside and outside of their underwear, and hugging them inappropriately.”

Hakim was a gym teacher at Saltonstall School in Salem from 2015 to 2018, NBC Boston noted, and his alleged victims were from six to eight years old, prosecutors said. Reisman stated the girls were from Hakim’s first, second, and third grade classes, per the Salem News.

WCVB reports:

Alleged instances of improper conduct were brought to the attention of the Salem Public School district in 2018. Hakim was immediately removed from the school and suspended pending the outcome of the investigation.

The accusations were reported to the state Department of Children and Families [DCF], the Salem Police Department and the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Salem school officials said DCF deemed the claims to not be prosecutable.

“Hakim’s teaching license was revoked in 2020, according to police, and a year later, a new Saltonstall student told her parents of something Hakim did to her in 2016,” leading to the former teacher’s “arrest on seven charges,” NBC Boston reported.

An additional nine students came forward in the months that followed. Reisman told the Salem News that the 32 counts stem from a grand jury indictment based on the first child who came forward in December and the nine victims who subsequently brought forth allegations. The original victim’s case filed in Salem District Court was dropped, and Hakim’s charges stemming from her allegations are being pursued with the nine victims’ claims in Superior Court, according to the publication.

The school district superintendent, Dr. Stephen Zrike, along with Salem Police Chief Lucas Miller and Mayor Kimberley Driscoll, issued a joint statement on the allegations, per the Salem News.

“The actions for which Daniel Hakim has been arrested and charged are abominations,” the statement reads in part. “We are grateful for and applaud the cooperation of the victims and their families, their patience with the detailed investigation, and, above all, their courage in coming forward.”