NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — A Queens high school teacher was arrested and charged with forcibly touching a teenage student and sending sexually suggestive texts to another, officials announced Saturday.
The 31-year-old man, Shannon Hall, worked at Jamaica Gateway to the Sciences High School where he allegedly squeezed a 14-year-old student’s breast while alone with her in a classroom on May 25, authorities said.
In two other separate incidents, Hall sent inappropriate text messages to a 16-year-old student. In one, Hall tells the girl “I want to be with you,” before sending an apology text the next day, chalking it up to being drunk, court documents show.
On May 25, Hall approached the 16-year-old girl while in school and told her he was jealous of her and another male student, police said, adding that she should “look out for him the way that he looks out for her.”
According to officials, later that evening, the 16-year-old victim texted Hall and asked what he meant by the comments. Hall then allegedly responded saying, among other things, that he wanted to “kiss her, smoke with her and have sex with her.”
Hall then allegedly sent a threatening text message to the victim after the inappropriate ones saying if she showed anyone the messages she would be dead.
“As parents, each day we drop our children at school, and entrust their care and custody to teachers, whom we expect to be our surrogates in every regard,” said Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz. “It shocks the conscience to believe that a person in a professional capacity, charged with a child’s welfare, would exploit his position of authority and trust, and as alleged, endanger a child’s welfare and engage in aggravated harassment and sexual abuse with students.”
Hall was charged with forcible touching, two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, aggravated harassment in the second degree and sexual abuse in the third degree. If convicted, Hall faces up to one year in jail and/or a $1,000 fine on each complaint. He’s due back in court on June 28.
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