A fifth-grade class from Queens sent homemade holiday cards to a surprising pen pal their teacher’s jailbird boyfriend. Should she get in trouble for this!? Depends which angle you’re looking at this from. If you’re the parent well then I know somebodies mad! Click below to read the rest.
Melissa Dean made her students at Public School 143 in Corona draw Christmas cards for her beau because she “thought it was a nice thing to do,†investigators said.
But a guard at Groveland Correctional Facility in Livingston disagreed, intercepting the package of 27 letters for John Coccarelli and alerting Dean’s principal.
“It was bad judgment,†said the city’s Special Commissioner of Investigation Richard Condon. “She certainly did not have permission.â€
Dean, 31, told her students that they were sending the crayon-drawn notes to people without families who were lonely during the holidays.
She did not get permission from the school or kids’ parents to send the cards — some of which contained the students’ names and home addresses .
“If you write something nice to them, they will write back to us,†Dean told the class, according to a child interviewed by officials.
One student wrote, “I hope you have a Merry Christmas,†while another called Dean the “best teacher†because she didn’t assign a lot of homework.
Dean even penned one herself, signing it “from your Wifey Melissa.â€
Coccarelli, 33, was jailed in August 2008 for a felony weapons charge and for violating an order of protection. He is eligible for release in May.
Dean, who draws a yearly salary of $75,283 and has taught at PS 143 since 2004, was put on desk duty as soon as officials were notified of Condon’s report.
“We are seeking her termination,†said Education Department spokeswoman Barbara Morgan.
