One day in January 2019, Ghislaine Maxwell stood in front of a classroom of children at Rockport Elementary School and gave a presentation about the ocean.
School officials said they had no idea Maxwell was a longtime confidante of the late Jeffrey Epstein. To them, she was the founder of TerraMar Project, a New York-based nonprofit that she established to help the environment and protect the world’s oceans.
“We had no knowledge” of Maxwell’s connections to Epstein, Rockport Schools Superintendent Rob Liebow said. Her presentation to the class was a one-time event that took place during school hours and was done at the request of the teacher, who was teaching a unit on oceans, he said.
The Associated Press reported Wednesday that Maxwell had been sued by Jennifer Araoz, a woman who alleges that Epstein forcibly raped her when she was a teenager in 2002. The lawsuit accuses Maxwell of helping Epstein recruit teenage girls and providing “organizational support to Epstein’s sex trafficking ring.” Maxwell previously denied wrongdoing, saying any allegations she was involved in arranging sex for Epstein were “abhorrent and entirely untrue,” according to the AP.
Much has changed since Maxwell was a guest speaker at Rockport Elementary School. Maxwell’s old friend Epstein, who was facing sex trafficking charges, apparently committed suicide in a jail in New York City on Aug. 10. The TerraMar Project has been shut down. And Maxwell herself has come under increased scrutiny, especially after the Daily Mail reported that she has been living with her boyfriend Scott Borgerson in Manchester-by-the-Sea, one town over from Rockport. – READ MORE