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Teacher Accused Of Raping Student Had Facebook-Friended Many Students
By
Jen Chung
Published Apr 11, 2013
Modified Apr 11, 2013
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By
Jen Chung
Published Apr 11, 2013
Modified Apr 11, 2013
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The story about the Queens middle school teacher charged with multiple counts of raping a 14-year-old student has a social media angle: Daniel Reilly, 36, had friended many of his students on Facebook.
The Daily News reports that the married father of an 11-month-old baby "had a Facebook page with about 40 visible friends on it — and nearly all of them appear to be teenage girls and boys. Eighteen friends are girls, some of whom list their local high schools. Most look to be about 14 — the same age as the former student Reilly is alleged to have bedded as many as 10 times over a seven-month period starting last October and ending last week."
One student told the News, "It was just his Facebook to upload photos of his engagement and vacations for his students to see. A lot of his students were curious about his personal life. He hasn’t used it in years." According to the Post, "Department of Education policy recommends that teachers don’t friend students on the site, but there’s no outright ban." A sixth-grader declared, "He gives out candy. He is just really a nice, easy to talk to, nice guy. He gave me a Jolly Rancher yesterday before they arrested him."
Queens prosecutors allege that Reilly contacted the student via text message last August, asking her to have sex, and then had numerous encounters with the teen in the apartment he shared with his wife and child from October through this past Monday. The victim's sister discovered sexually explicit text messages allegedly from Reilly and the family contacted the police. However, the student that the News spoke to said, "A lot of his students and the teachers think [the alleged rape] was just a made up story."
Reilly was released on $30,000 bail, which his lawyer wife Annemarie Reilly put up; she's currently staying at her mother's house on Long Island. A neighbor of Reilly's mother-in-law told the Post that Annemarie Reilly is a "wonderful girl... She didn’t do anything wrong. He’s going to jail. He’ll be a pin cushion — you know what happens to child molesters in prison."
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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