A Queens jury today acquitted a high school shop teacher accused of molesting a female student inside a classroom.
George Zola, 58, of Valley Stream, L.I., walked out of court shouting “free at last, free at last” after six men and six women exonerated him on all charged of sexual abuse against his former student.
“We just couldn’t believe her story completely,” said one juror. “Its sad.”
The student, now a 20-year-old college co-ed, admitted during the week-long trial that she “trusted” the teacher, and had openly flirted with him inside the hangar section of Aviation Career & Technical Education High School during class.
She also told jurors she often came to school drunk and high on marijuana and ecstasy pills.
The 22-year tenured teacher was cleared of charges that he slapped the girl’s buttocks and fondled her breast between December 2008 and January 2009.
Zola is the third educator in Queens County to be acquitted by a jury in a teacher-student sex abuse case within the last 15 years, according to the Queens District Attorney’s office.
“I’d never go back to that school,” said Zola, who will find out in a few weeks from the Department of Education if he will be able to teach again.
ccarrega@nypost.com