School rocked again — guidance counselor booted
A guidance counselor at a Manhattan high school is in trouble for having an affair with one of her students, officials said yesterday - the second sex scandal to rock the school this week. Samantha Solomon, 29, was booted from the High School for Health Professions and Human Services after school bosses learned she was having sex with a teenage boy, according to the Education Department.Again, they must train teachers differently from when I went to school. We never got such one-on-one attention. Dammit!
But Solomon, who was reassigned to desk duty last month, vehemently denied any wrongdoing and attributed the accusations to rumors gone wild. "I never had a sexual relationship with a student ever," she told the Daily News last night. "I'm a good person, a nice person. I never signed anything saying I did that."
Hey, stonewall, honey. It worked for Clinton.
Solomon is set to meet tomorrow to discuss "disciplinary action" with educrats, who are seeking to fire her, said Education Department spokesman Keith Kalb. Solomon said she had met with the student, currently a senior, to discuss college possibilities. "She did not do anything that was illegal or immoral," said her mother, Donna Solomon. "She's very pretty and very close with all the students."
She sure is. You tell 'em, mom.
The accusations were leveled as students and staffers reeled from a report charging that a shy basketball star got social studies teacher Rhianna Ellis pregnant. Ellis, 24, delivered a healthy baby in February after a 10-month tryst with an 18-year-old student who graduated in June, officials said. Students and staffers at the school, on E. 15th St. in Gramercy Park, identified the boy toy as Cesar Pozo, a good athlete who was popular with classmates.
...and teachers. At least one.
Ellis was chummy with students, showing up at a sweet-16 party last year where she slow-danced with Pozo, and frequently letting kids skip class, students said. "She was a very friendly person," said senior Brandon Simms, 18.
She sure was...
Ellis and the youth began having sex in August 2003, when he was 17, according to a report released yesterday by Special Schools Investigator Richard Condon. Her jealousy soured the relationship and they broke up last spring after one last fling, investigators said. She then alerted him that she was pregnant and planned to have an abortion, according to Condon's report. The teen had even introduced his older flame to his parents - but never said she was his teacher, his father told investigators. The Pozos declined to comment yesterday from their posh midtown apartment.
AH-HA! A rich kid! Could we possibly have a motive here? So much for that abortion idea, kid.
The teacher and student phoned each other so frequently that his cell-phone bill hit $700, investigators said. His parents seized the phone, but Ellis replaced it and paid the new bills, investigators said.
Good parental responsibility there, mom and dad, he snickered...
Last year, the teen received a 65 in her class, a passing grade that "wasn't bad," considering he failed exams, didn't do homework and was late every day, he told investigators.
Probably not his fault though. I blame "low self esteem" or something like that. And doesn't teacher babe sound like she was doing a helluva job?
Ellis left the school on unpaid medical leave in October and has not returned. She could not be reached yesterday at an apartment she rents with her parents in Glendale, Queens. But neighbors were shaken by the news. "She is a good person," said neighbor Heidi Leschitz, 24. Although they were friends, Leschitz said Ellis never mentioned a boyfriend or named the father of her newborn. "The baby is beautiful," Leschitz remarked.
When I die, please let me come back as a horny teenager at the High School for Health Professions and Human Services in Manhattan.
