Teacher from LI held in statutory rape of student

Melissa Weber, 27, of West Babylon, is escorted out of a police precinct, left. Weber is accused of a sexual relationship with a student, 14, according to police.


A woman from West Babylon is in custody on rape charges after she repeatedly had sex with a 14-year-old student after hours at the Queens school where she teaches, prosecutors said.

Melissa Weber, 27, "engaged in sexual intercourse" with the student in a second-floor classroom of MS/IS 8 in Jamaica on seven occasions between April 13 and May 14, prosecutors said Thursday.

Weber, a social studies and homeroom teacher, told the victim, "Don't tell anyone. I could get arrested and I could lose my teaching license," Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said in a news release.

The teacher is being held pending arraignment in Queens Criminal Court on seven counts of second-degree rape, 14 counts of third-degree sexual abuse and one count of endangering the welfare of a child, prosecutors said.


Things to do this weekend Brown called the charges "disturbing."

"A teacher is accused of preying on a young student who she is entrusted to teach," Brown said in a Thursday news release. "A classroom should always be a safe place for a child. The defendant is alleged to have destroyed her students' trust."

Brown said the boy's mother's learned from "sources at the school" that a teacher was "engaged in an inappropriate relationship with her son."

The mother checked her son's cell phone and "allegedly found hundreds of contacts between the teacher and her son over the last two months," the district attorney said.

One of the last texts from the teacher stated, "Erase your phone," prosecutors said.

Weber, of 1566 12th St., West Babylon, faces up to 7 years in prison if convicted, prosecutors said.

There was no activity Friday morning at the small, white ranch-style house on 12th Street near Little East Neck Road where, neighbors said, she has been a tenant for several months.

Nearby residents said they rarely saw her at the house, where a white picket fence encloses a lawn and small statues of Jesus and Mary.

"She leaves early in the morning and comes home late at night," said Debbie Arpino, 57, a retiree who lives across the street, and who said she has never spoken to Weber but feels sorry for her.

"It's just really sad," Arpino said. "You never expect things like this to happen."

Josh Seidman contributed to this story.