According to a New York Post article, several instances of improper conduct and sexual assault have been reported by female instructors in the Big Apple in recent years.
Natalie Black, a 27-year-old teacher at the Hillside Arts and Letters Academy in Queens, is one example of a terrible teacher. She is accused of emailing several provocative images to her pupils.
According to The Post, the images showed Black either in lingerie or entirely nude, her vagina being visible. Sexting started in late 2021. Student who was 17 years old was the casualty.
Despite being questioned by the NYPD, Black was never charged.
Black reportedly gave a student a snapshot of her genitalia in March 2022, despite the intervention of New York’s Finest. Another time, Black reportedly yelled, “Eat my a**,” while taking down her trousers at a student’s house.
The sexting continued; according to the Post, Black allegedly shared videos of herself dancing while partially undressed and “deep-throating” a liquor bottle.
The Hillside Arts and Letters Academy, according to The Post, kept parents in the dark about Black’s actions by never making it public.
Black was’removed’ from her teaching post, according to a Department of Education official. According to The Post, Black has not cooperated with inquiries into her actions.
She continues to be identified as a special education teacher for the Department of Education on her LinkedIn profile. She has degrees from Brooklyn College and SUNY.
“In grander tries, it is even lovely to fail,” Black says on her Facebook.
Black was a SUNY Purchase student when he earned the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in 2017.
Students who succeed in both their academics and extracurricular activities are given the honor. Black served as co-captain of the SUNY Purchase step team when she was a student and made the Dean’s list three years in a row.
While in college, Black was well-known for her musical abilities, playing as a singer-songwriter at her church and on campus.
Another case included Makita Brooks-Stanton, a paraprofessional at PS 160 Walter Francis Bishop in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, who used Google Meet to broadcast her pre-K children her breast exam at a doctor’s office.
‘She even had the doctor say hey to the class on Google Meet,’ a worried mother told the Post. For around two minutes, the flashing continued. The program had to be stopped when a worried mother had to enter the room.
“I felt pretty horrible when I filed the lawsuit,” she continued.
I believe she just made a bad decision here.
That parent said that Brooks continues to work at PS 160.
At the time, Danielle Medellin, another instructor at Manhattan’s Institute for Collaborative Education, was accused of exchanging 5,500 messages with an 11th-grade student that were “packed with sexual tension.” The Post said that she quit before being let go.
According to Medellin’s LinkedIn profile, she has been employed as a data analyst with the New York Times since August 2020.
Since the Post article’s publication on October 8th, Medellin has removed her LinkedIn profile.
On that website, Medellin claimed that during her tenure as a teacher, she was “motivated by her pupils,” however she quit her position at the Institute of Collaborative Education in September 2019.
Medellin is a New York University alumnus.
At the Queens High School of Teaching, Liberal Arts, and Sciences, instructor Michelle Zak, then 31 years old, “engaged in an improper relationship” with not one, but two of her pupils.
Zak is charged with hosting sleepovers and sharing marijuana with youngsters. Zak was moved to an office position inside the Department of Education after an inquiry.
Zak is now employed as a private tutor. Zak taught both public speaking and special education when she was employed in Queens. Student Engagement is one of her mentioned abilities on the website.
She has degrees from Touro University and Binghamton University. As a “Innovative Learning Specialist influencing the future of education and training,” Zak describes her role.
How are you going to connect with your pupils throughout the year if you don’t know their position or what they’re all about? Zak said in a 2014 blog post about her educational philosophy.
She identified herself as the daughter of immigrants from Russia.
Juliana Garofalo, a teacher at the Institute for Collaborative Education, admitted to having a sexual connection with a pupil to her coworkers in 2018. Her age at the time was 33.
Later, she resigned from her position and started working at the Greenwich, Connecticut, Pinnacle School. She was fired from the position once they learned about her prior behavior in New York.
Garofalo responded by suing the Department of Education. In December 2021, the New York State Supreme Court dismissed her claim. A court deemed Garofalo’s conduct “utterly disqualifying” for employment in the field of education.
According to the Department of Justice’s Center for Sex Offender Management, around 10% of sex offenses in the general community are committed by women.
30% of those who commit sex offenses against teachers are female.
Fox News reported in May 2022 that 135 instructors have been accused of sex offenses only this year. Among them, 105 are men and 30 are women.
Erika Sanzi, Parents Defending Education’s director of outreach, told the network: “Educator sexual assault is a serious issue that usually goes unreported because it’s so awkward to speak about.”
“While a very tiny percentage of educators and school staff prey on the children in their care, one bad actor may harm many pupils,” she said.