23 August 2023 , 07:23
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A teacher has been charged with raping a 14-year-old student - after previously sharing a "helping kids understand consent" page on Facebook.
Melissa Rockensies, a 33-year-old teacher at Corona Arts and Sciences Academy in New York, was arrested by police on Tuesday at around 10.30am following the allegations, Insider reported.
According to the New York Police Department, she was charged with with rape, criminal sexual act and acting in a manner injurious to a child less than 17 years old. It wasn’t clear whether the alleged rape happened on or off-campus.
The teacher, who previously shared a Facebook page which gave tips for kids to help understand consent, was reassigned from the school pending the outcome of her case.
“This alleged behaviour is extremely concerning and wholly unacceptable,” DOE spokeswoman Jenna Lyle said. “This employee has been reassigned away from the school and students pending the outcome of the arrest and if convicted, we will pursue termination. Nothing is more important than the safety and well-being of our students.”
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It wasn’t clear whether the alleged rape happened on or off-campus (Facebook)It comes after a woman whose former maths teacher shared nudes she sent to her then boyfriend was awarded just $10,000 in damages.
Kaitlyn Cannon, 29, sent the explicit photos in 2016, four years after graduating school, when two years later they appeared on a Dutch website that was littered with non-consensual pornography.
It later turned out the person responsible for sharing her intimate pictures was her former maths teacher, Christopher Doyle, who worked at Wall High School in New Jersey.
She previously shared a Facebook page on helping kids understand consent (Facebook)Kaitlyn admitted she had no idea how Mr Doyle was able to obtain the pictures from her old boyfriend to his computer.
It was revealed during a Ocean Court hearing that the IP address which posted the victim's photos was linked to Mr Doyle's address, causing Kaitlyn to break down in tears during her testimony last week.
She revealed after the nudes were posted online in 2018, she was left with dozens of Facebook requests from men across her state, with her parents and grandparents receiving phone calls from men breathing heavily and demanding to speak to her.
In addition, some of the pictures contained her face as well as her first name. Kaitlyn revealed she was diagnosed with PTSD and prescribed antidepressants when she discovered the man responsible was her former maths teacher.
She was a teacher at Corona Arts and Sciences Academy (Google Maps)Despite Kaitlyn going to the police, they did not file criminal charges against the former maths teacher and instead, she was given a paltry $10,000 in damages for the violation of her privacy.
She told the court: "I was shocked and confused, hoping it wasn't real. I didn't think there would be someone in my life who would do this kind of thing.
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"He's my former teacher. He's not someone who's supposed to see me that way. It ruined my whole life in New Jersey because I felt like I couldn't leave my house. I felt unsafety in my own body, feeling like it didn't belong to me anymore.
"Someone that is on these websites looking for photos of people they used to teach, people who are still in school, that is really concerning to me. Part of the reason I'm here today; it bothers me really deeply.'"