A popular math teacher at Wantagh High School
was arrested Wednesday evening for having sex with a 16-year-old student,
police said Thursday.
Heather Kennedy, 25, who has taught math at Wantagh High School
for three years, was released on $35,000 bond after she was arraigned in Nassau
County First District Court in Hempstead on
charges of rape and endangering the welfare of a child.
According to Nassau Detective Lt. Richard Zito, Kennedy had
sex with the boy in his car last week in the parking lot of another area high
school, the New York Post reported. The one-night stand was discovered the next
morning after the student’s father grilled him about coming home late. The boy,
whose name has not been released because he is a minor, said he was with
friends initially, but later came clean about the alleged encounter with the
teacher, Zito said.
“We believe it was a one-time incident,” Zito said. In fact,
the teacher had a good reputation with students and administrators alike. She
was “well thought of by school administrators,” Zito said.
“I’ve known Heather for a long time and it’s certainly out
of character for her to be accused of such a crime,” said Kennedy’s lawyer,
Steven Zimmer, according to the New York Daily News.
Meanwhile, “the teacher has been immediately administratively
reassigned out of the classroom to her home, pending the outcome of the
investigation,” said school representative Debbie Shor-Casper.
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