Maria Contreras, a 29-year-old teaching assistant, has been arrested and charged with six counts of rape and two counts of a criminal sex act. Contreras’s alleged victim was a 14-year-old male student at the Bronx Academy of Letters, where she was employed as a “substitute paraprofessional,” according to the Department of Education.
The 14-year-old has been described by news outlets as “mentally disabled” or “mentally ill.” CBS 2 reports, “Contreras raped the teen multiple times at her apartment on Barker Avenue in the Bronx, investigators said. The inappropriate relationship started Nov. 11 and lasted about a week, police said. The victim told his mother about the alleged abuse, and she notified police.”
In a statement, the DOE called the allegations against Contreras “incredibly disturbing” and said she had been fired. “We are working with the NYPD on their investigation,” the statement added.
