Teacher Pleads Guilty To Statutory Rape Of 14-Year-Old Student

RICHARD A. BROWN: 'A disturbing betrayal of trust.'

A 27-year-old middle school Teacher in Queens has pleaded guilty to repeated statutory rape of a 14-year-old student and will likely face 10 years of probation as punishment, Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced Aug 4.

Melissa Weber, a social studies and homeroom Teacher at M.S. 8 in Jamaica, Queens, admitted that she had engaged in sexual intercourse with a student seven times in April and May. The encounters occurred in a secondfloor classroom after school.

Insisted on Secrecy

According to Mr. Brown, during the trysts Ms. Weber would tell the student, whose name was not revealed because of his age, "Don't tell anyone. I could get arrested and I could lose my teaching license."

The crime was discovered by the student's mother, who is a member of M.S. 8's Parent-Teacher Association. When she was tipped by someone at the school about an inappropriate relationship between her son and Ms. Weber, she checked his cell phone and found hundreds of text messages between the two of them. One of the last messages read, "erase your phone."

"As a Teacher, the defendant's actions represent a disturbing betrayal of trust to the student, his parents and the school that employed her," Mr. Brown said in a statement. "A classroom should always be a safe place for a child, free of sexual predators who would betray and defile youngsters."

He added that Ms. Weber's admission of guilt "spares the young victim in this case the emotional trauma of having to testify at trial."

Sentencing has been set for Sept. 23 by Acting Queens Supreme Court Justice Robert Raciti, who has indicated that he will give Ms. Weber 10 years' probation and order her to register as a sex offender for 20 years, as well as barring her from social networking Web sites and from visiting school grounds or other areas where children congregate.

Ms. Weber, who will lose her job as a result of her status as a sex offender, has been incarcerated since her arraignment on May 28. She will be discharged with time served during her sentencing.