Green Farms Academy Teacher Fired After Inappropriate Comments: School

WESTPORT, CT — An educator at Greens Farms Academy, a prestigious private school in Westport, was first placed on leave and later fired after Project Veritas posted a video this week that purportedly showed him making sexually explicit comments about female students.

Iman Rasti, whose LinkedIn profile says he was an English teacher, director of the school's writing center and dean of GFA's middle school, is purportedly heard in the nearly 10-minute video speaking to a woman in a restaurant. She is identified only as a Project Veritas journalist.

When and where the secret video was filmed is not disclosed, nor is the name of the journalist to whom Rasti is speaking. The video was posted on the Project Veritas website on Thursday.

During the conversation on the Project Veritas video, Rasti, who wrote on LinkedIn that he has a Ph.D., explicitly describes female students' undergarments and the temptations the students have posed to him.

Due to the explicit nature of the video, Patch is not posting it. On the video, the man also says that he has not had any physical contact with any of his students. Patch reached out to Rasti for comment, but did not immediately receive a reply.

In a letter to the GFA community, a copy of which was obtained by Patch, Head of School Bob Whelan explained Rasti's termination.

"The Project Veritas story came to our attention yesterday, and in accordance with our policies, GFA immediately put Dr. Rasti on administrative leave and promptly commenced an investigation," Whelan wrote in the letter. "Dr. Rasti claimed that the statements in the edited video were taken out of context. Dr. Rasti’s grossly inappropriate comments are anathema to everything we stand for.

Whelan added that "This incident is deeply troubling and violates the foundation of trust in our community between adults and the students in our care. Nothing in Dr. Rasti’s background check, references, or professional performance while a teacher at GFA would have led us to believe he would act in this manner."

"When Dr. Rasti was hired in 2019, Greens Farms Academy completed a thorough, FBI-accredited background check and secured multiple references; in the ensuing years, we have not received a single allegation of misconduct against him or report of other concerning behavior," Whelan wrote.

Whelan added that "We have no tolerance for inappropriate conduct by adults in our community. We remain steadfast in our commitment to providing a safe and supportive campus environment and to making student well-being paramount in all that we do."

"I recognize that the trust we seek to build every day has been challenged as a result of this incident. I also have unwavering faith in our faculty and staff’s commitment to our mission and our students;..." Whelan wrote.

In the video, Project Veritas founder James O'Keefe discusses Rasti's comments, and says that the conversation went on for nearly two hours.

Project Veritas is a conservative media organization, known for conducting undercover video stings and publicizing private conversations. Videos are often edited down.

Patch reached out to the Westport Police Department concerning the incident.

"I can confirm that at this time there is no active investigation into this matter," Capt. Dave Wolf told Patch.