An exclusive report from the New York Post found that over 100 educators in New York City have been accused of having inappropriate, sexual relationships and communications with students.
This includes requesting nude photos from students, and “plying them with money, gifts or drugs,” records obtained by The Post show (via NYP):
Thirty-two more cases of educators and other school staffers engaged in improper communications with kids were substantiated by the city’s Special Commissioner of Investigation — boosting the total to at least 121 cases from 2018 to 2024, up from 89 tallied in May, according to reports released to The Post.
Special Commissioner Anastasia Coleman has recommended 54 times from 2019 to 2023 that the city Department of Education prohibit all employees from contacting students using personal cell phone numbers, social media accounts, or other apps.
More than 100 NYC educators accused of sexual relationships, communications with students as DOE finally mulls a crackdown. Read today's cover here: https://t.co/AAG7jr1Y9j pic.twitter.com/1Sc8zw0vHG
— New York Post (@nypost) January 26, 2025
According to the Post, some of the “newly revealed” cases include teachers sending hundreds, sometimes thousands, of explicit messages to students. In some cases, the educators were sexual with the students, as well.
One teacher, Daniel Matuk, began communicating with one of his 15-year-old graphic design students at William Cullen Bryant HS in Queens in 2020, exchanging over 700 messages between 2022 and 2023. He called this student a “b****” and a “whore.” The teacher would force the student to hug him when his classroom was empty.
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Anthony Schiliro, a history teacher at Eleanor Roosevelt HS in Manhattan, “excessively” texted three female students at his school. Reportedly, on one occasion, he made a remark about one student having sex in front of the other two.
One teacher, Steven Perez, a social studies teacher at Fort Hamilton HS in Brooklyn, texted a 15-year-old student about his relationship problems. He gave her cigarettes and tried to kiss her on one occasion. He was arrested in December 2021, but the Brooklyn DA did not prosecute.
Ellen Huynh, a teacher at the Civic Leadership Academy in Queens, texted a male student more than 9,000 times between 2022 and 2023. Witnesses said they saw the two hugging, alone in a classroom, with the door shut. They were also spotted at a park together. The student refused to speak to investigators about their conversations.
Dulaina Almonte, 33, a French teacher at Harry S. Truman High School in The Bronx, sent a female student, 17, over 28,000 late-night texts.
Scott Biski, 50, was a music teacher at Jamaica Gateway to the Sciences High School. He was accused of sexually abusing and grooming a female student. He sent her hundreds of messages and told her to save his number under a fake name “so as to not arouse suspicion.”
Natalie Black, 30, a teacher at Hillside Arts and Letters Academy, sent explicit photos and videos of herself to a 17-year-old boy. She sent a separate video of herself drinking a liquor bottle and dancing naked from the waist down.
Danielle Medellin was 24 when she exchanged over 5,000 “very flirtatious,” “sexual tension”-filled texts with one of her male students at Manhattan’s Institute for Collaborative Education. She reportedly resigned before she could be fired.
The city Department of Education told the Post that all these staffers have resigned or been terminated.
“There’s no reason to be calling or texting a student on a personal device unless it’s something you don’t want said on a DOE computer or email address,” an NYC high school teacher told The Post.
“Most schools have communications policies prohibiting private communications at this point because they recognize the risks,” Dr. Elizabeth Jeglic, a John Jay College of Criminal Justice professor who researches child sexual abuse and grooming, told the outlet. “I am not sure why this is not being done in New York City.”
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