This is the second teacher in Allegheny County this year to be found guilty for having inappropriate contact with a student.
According to court documents, Geraldine Alcorn, 29, of Pittsburgh was charged back in March after police were alerted by a youth worker that the child’s mother had caught Alcorn and her daughter home alone in the child’s home.
The mother found several letters written by the child to Alcorn which were titled “Things Ms. Alocorn and I can do,” “What we can do,” and “When can we do it.” The mother also found 21 post-it stickers on the child’s binder.
During the investigation police were able to recover 2,400 text messages between the student and Alcorn over a two-week period.
In several of the messages, the student and Alcorn expressed “a deep love for each other,” the court document alleges.
Alcorn also discussed adopting the student, the complaint alleges.
During some of the messages the two discussed that Alcorn could simply remove the child from her home, with Alcorn telling the 11-year-old “they would be ‘on the run’ for a while.”
After the relationship was discovered, police informed Alcorn that she was prohibited from having any further contact with the child, and Alcorn was immediately suspended.
On March 16, the day after Alcorn resigned from the school district, she was permitted back into the school to retrieve her personal belongings. School officials discovered that while in the school Alcorn left a encrypted message in the student’s locker on a math work sheet, instructing the student to call her. The student was instructed to follow the numbers circled on the sheet, which matched Alcorn’s telephone number.
In her no contest plea today before Common Pleas Judge Edward Borkowski, the former teacher did not admit guilt, but agreed the prosecution had enough evidence to convict her had her case proceeded to trial. For sentencing and conviction purposes a no contest plea is treated the same as a guilty plea.
She faces five years of probation, and according to a court official is not required to register as a sex offender. Alcorn must also undergo mental health treatment as part of her probation and have no contact with the child.
State education records still show that Alcorn has a valid state teaching license. A call to the Pennsylvania Department of Education inquiring why Alcorn’s teaching license has not been suspended or revoked was not immediately returned Wednesday afternoon.
Thus far this year, five teachers have been charged in Allegheny County with having an improper relationship, some sexual in nature with students, and a sixth with witness intimidation for allegedly identifying in class one of the involved students
Four of the six taught at Plum Area High School where three are charged with having a sexual relationship with a student, and the fourth is charged with intimidation of a witness for pointing out one of the students who was allegedly involved with one of the accused teachers, court documents show.
At least three of the four, all male teachers, are scheduled to face a jury early next year.
Megan Batakeyfer, a former high school rowing coach was found guilty in August for having a sexual relationship with a student, and is scheduled to be sentenced in November by Judge Borkowski.
