A 40-year-old Bronx elementary school teacher was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly raping a 10-year-old student after writing to her parents on school letterhead, saying she’d won an award and offering to drive her to the ceremony. There was no award, and police say Anthony Criscuolo took the girl to a school parking lot on Monday and assaulted her in his car. Her mother called the police on Tuesday after finding e-mails of a “sexual nature” between Criscuolo and her daughter.
Criscuolo has worked at schools in the Bronx for a decade and has no criminal history. Before he was reassigned to administrative duty on Thursday, he was a fifth grade special education teacher at P.S. 386. As Metro points out, as a tenured teacher Criscuolo is allowed to keep his job and continue receiving his full paycheck, but a spokeswoman for the Department of Education says they are attempting to fire him and remove him from the payroll during the investigation. Criscuolo has been charged with first-degree rape and predatory assault of a child.
