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A Queens elementary-school teacher had students send holiday cards that included their home addresses to her beau — a locked-up felon once hit with a kiddie-porn charge, officials charged yesterday.
The office of Special Commissioner of Investigation Richard Condon recommended that PS 143 fifth-grade teacher Melissa Dean be canned for the dangerous deed — which she had done on the sly.
“She didn’t have the school’s permission. She didn’t have the parents’ permission. The children didn’t know they were sending these cards to someone who was an inmate in a correctional facility,” said Condon.
“She was exposing these children — their names and addresses — to someone who was in prison.”
Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott said last night, “It’s something that’s totally unacceptable. I heard about it and I can’t say . . . what I said to myself, because I just find it mind-boggling.’’
The handmade holiday cards were mailed around Christmas to John Coccarelli, an inmate at the high-security Groveland Correctional Facility near Rochester.
He was convicted of possessing a loaded Ruger semiautomatic pistol and of violating an order of protection against his ex-wife in May 2010, according to the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office.
Court papers show he was arrested after texting his ex that if he kills her, “at least I will be going away for a good reason.”
They also show he was initially charged with possessing dozens of sexually explicit images of young kids on a floppy disk and laptop at his Port Washington, LI, home.
He was not convicted of that charge, which appears to have been dropped during plea negotiations.
A number of students told probers that Dean had asked them to write their names and addresses on the crayon-drawn cards if they wanted a reply.
At least two kids took Dean’s advice, including one 10-year-old boy.
Students also told investigators they thought the cards were intended for lonely or ill people.
“Who would make children write to someone in prison?” asked Maria Hernandez, whose daughter is in kindergarten at the East Elmhurst school.
“That’s sick.”
A staffer at the upstate prison intercepted the cards — 25 from students and one each from Dean and her daughter.
Dean’s card to him was signed “from your Wifey,” with a heart by her name.
Dean, who earns $75,000. declined to speak to probers. Her lawyer, Virginia LoPreto, did not reply to requests for comment.