Day's Worst: New York teacher who had kids make cards for inmate
By DP Opinion
child pornography, day's worst, education, New York, prison, weapons charges
Denver Post file photo
A New York teacher was grotesquely irresponsible when she duped her fifth grade students into writing holiday cards to a prison inmate — one who had been charged with child pornography possession.
Melissa Dean had her students make handmade Christmas cards for unspecified lonely people. She actually sent them to a friend of hers, who had been convicted of violating an order of protection and illegal weapons possession, according to the New York Times.
The intended recipient was John Coccarelli, who had been "charged in 2008 with possessing child pornography, but that charge was never brought to trial because he pleaded guilty to a charge calling for a longer sentence," prosecutors said, according to the Times.
Some children balked at putting their names on the cards, but the teacher added them anyway. Dean was issued a letter of warning by New York's Conflicts of Interest board, a punishment that would have been more harsh if Dean had not quit her teaching job in June. The Education Department had sought to have her fired.
The only bright spot in this sordid tale is that alert prison officials intercepted the cards before they reached the inmate. Thank goodness.
Categories: Day's Worst, Education, Uncategorized
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