Susan Edelman, reporter at the New York Post, often gets scoops, and this one is a doozy.

Several principals have been accused of sexual harassment. Some have caused the city to pay out hundreds of thousands of dollars for their misconduct, but they are seldom punished. Instead they are reassigned to headquarters with their pay and pension intact.

When Shaunte Penniston complained that her principal was making sexual demands, the city Department of Education not only failed to investigate, she alleged, but immediately notified the principal — who promptly had her fired.

The teacher then filed a lawsuit, which has dragged on in court for five years, the city fighting it at every step. But even if Penniston wins her case, it’s too late for the DOE to punish her alleged tormentor, Antonio K’tori. Under state law, educators with tenure cannot be brought up on disciplinary charges more than three years after their alleged misconduct.

“It’s a system that gives predators a platform and access to victims,” Penniston told The Post. “Nothing is done, and there are protections for perpetrators.”

The loophole helps explain why principals have kept their six-figure DOE jobs despite multiple sex-harassment complaints and millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded settlements paid to accusers.

“It’s a terrible burden on the teachers who are complaining, and a terrible burden on taxpayers, because we have to pay large amounts to settle these cases — and then the salaries of the principals in perpetuity,” said education advocate Leonie Haimson.

In a shocking example, the city paid a total $830,000 to settle five lawsuits — including four for sexual harassment and retaliation — against Howard Kwait, principal of John Bowne HS in Flushing, Queens. One assistant principal claimed he asked her and female colleagues for threesomes, rubbed against her and offered her oral sex as a reward if she could produce a high graduation rate.

After The Post asked about the mounting payments, new Chancellor Richard Carranza removed Kwait from the school and “reassigned” him to an unspecified office where he won’t manage anyone, officials said.

But Kwait will still collect his $156,671 salary, get contractual raises and accumulate pension credits.

The DOE said it can’t discipline or terminate Kwait because the three-year statute of limitation for bringing charges against him has expired.

Activist Leonie Haimson blasts the Department of Education’s inaction here.

She writes that it is DOE policy to report accusations of sexual harassment to the principals, even when they are the one accused, and they fire or harass the accuser.

“DOE chronically ignores teachers’ claims and instead informs the principals of their accusations, who then retaliate by firing them or making their lives miserable. In one horrible case that Sue [Edelman]describes, the principal of PS 15 in Queens Antonio K’tori was protected by District 29 Superintendent Lenon Murray, who himself was subsequently accused of sexual harassment. Earlier, several young girls were molested by a teacher at PS 15, who is now in jail. The girls won a $16 million jury award against the city, with the parents blaming DOE and the K’tori for “negligent supervision.”

“Yet even now, after teacher Shaunte Pennington filed a civil lawsuit against K’tori in court, who fired her after she reported harassment starting in 2012, the DOE has delayed doing anything for so long about her complaints that the three year statute of limitations has lapsed and he can’t be dismissed.”