According to a report by the Special Commissioner of Investigation for city schools, Mercedes “Mercy” Liriano, a Bronx teacher, used her Department of Education email address to solicit threesomes on Craigslist and exchange lewd photos.
The report revealed that Liriano used her school address for the raunchy exchanges. In at least eight emails from December 2016 to September 2017, the 50-year-old English teacher solicited sex. The report stated that “indecent photographs were exchanged, and one of the emails contained pictures of a woman’s vagina and a woman’s buttocks.” Liriano also sent bikini-clad photos of herself with a message that said, “Hello my name is Mercedes aka Mercy. Here are some pictures of me. Hope to hear from you soon.”
The emails started around the time Patricia Catania took over as interim acting principal of the school. In February 2019, Liriano claimed that Catania told her she wasn’t allowed to teach black history.
Catania, however, contended that she merely told the teacher she needed to have an adequate lesson plan. Catania wrote in a deposition submitted as part of dueling legal claims over the matter, “Ms. Liriano immediately went on a loud tirade throughout the hallway and main office of the school, screaming words to the effect that I could not tell her she could not teach Black History.” Catania said she became the victim of a “smear” campaign by Liriano and others that led to her demotion.
Liriano’s lewd emails came to light in January 2021 as part of the discovery process in the lawsuits, according to the SCI report. Liriano resigned in September 2021. Her online resume says she is now teaching in Georgia. Her husband of 15 years, Geoffrey, died suddenly in January 2022, according to a GoFundMe appeal she started, saying he had no life insurance.
Liriano through her lawyer, Jeanne Mirer, denied the allegations in the report and said she was never contacted to defend herself. The DOE did not respond to a question about what action it took on the SCI report and Georgia school officials did not return requests for comment. The SCI recommended the DOE place a “problem code” in her file that could prevent her from further employment in city schools.
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