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High School Teacher Coerced Teen Into Posing For Sexy "College" Photos
By
Ben Yakas
Published Oct 13, 2012
Modified Oct 13, 2012
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Oct 13, 2012
Modified Oct 13, 2012
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If a teacher ever tries to convince you that taking sexy photos in various states of undress will help you get into college, you should keep in mind that that is not a real thing that would ever happen. A DOE investigation has found that Raemon Matthews, 57, a former history teacher at Samuel Gompers High School in the Bronx, coerced a 17-year-old female student into posing for sexy photos he claimed would help her get into college. Oh, and earlier this year, he also pled guilty to a misdemeanor sexual abuse for fondling the same girl.
According to the schools investigation report, Matthews first initiated private tutoring sessions with the student by telling her she was in danger of failing and needed extra help. Matthews then encouraged her to pose for the photos in the fall of 2008 as a way to “attract college recruiters and employers.” Among other things, the student told the investigators that “Matthews exposed her breasts ‘so the pictures would come out good.’” When she tried to put a stop to the sessions in 2009, she claimed that he told her, “No, Boo-boo, we’re just getting started.”
Then on the final day of the shoots, Matthews fondled her breast, buttocks and private parts, investigators found. He plead guilty to sex abuse charges, and was sentenced to one year of probation. The pictures only came out after a janitor found a CD labeled "300;" he tried watching it, thinking it was the action movie, and instead discovered photos of the student “in various stages of undress.”
What's especially sad about this story is that Matthews was by all accounts a very popular and effective teacher at the school. Among other things, he was praised by former US Education Secretary Rod Paige, profiled by CNN, won two citywide Teacher of the Year awards, and written about in Joshua Foer’s best-selling book “Moonwalking with Einstein.” “You would never think in a million years that this could happen,” a source at Gompers told the Daily News. “He was always the first one in and the last one out of the building, staying late, tutoring kids.”
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Samuel Gompers High School
bronx
Raemon Matthews
college
sexy photos
teen
high school
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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