A bone-headed Queens elementary school teacher had her students write holiday cards with their names and addresses on them to her beau — a locked-up felon, investigators charged.
The Office of Special Commissioner of Investigation Richard Condon today recommended that PS 143 fifth-grade teacher Melissa Dean get canned for acting as though the “pen” in pen-pals stood for penitentiary.
“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.”
The student-made holiday cards were mailed around Christmas to John Coccarelli, an inmate at the high-security Groveland Correctional Facility near Rochester.
He was convicted of gun-possession and violating an order of protection in May 2010 in Nassau County, according to the district attorney’s office.
A number of students said Dean had told them to write their names and address on the cards if they wanted a reply, and that the cards were intended for lonely or sick people or those without a family.
The cards were intercepted before reaching Coccarelli.
Dean declined to speak with investigators and her lawyer, Virginia LoPreto, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.