Queens Teacher Charged With Abusing Five Students

For the second time this week, a Queens’s public school teacher has been accused of sexual molestation of students.

Simon Watts, a fourth grade teacher at P.S. 15 in the Springfield Gardens section of Queens, is accused of abusing five of his female students by making them touch him in a sexual manner, according to criminal charges.

Watts, 38, was arraigned Wednesday of first-degree sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child. 

“Children should be able to remain children. Such alleged conduct cannot go unpunished,” said District Attorney Richard A. Brown.
 
Between September 2007 and March 2010, Watts, of 197th Street in Queens, allegedly conducted the abuse, telling the girls “don’t tell anybody.” Watts faces up to seven years in prison if convicted and was held on $200,000 bail. His next court date is on May 3, 2010. 
 
The prior sexual abuse allegation this week involved a fifth grade special education teacher at the Thurgood Marshall Magnet School in Jamaica. Christine Williams, 41, of 127th Avenue in Jamaica, was charged on Monday with third-degree rape and criminal sexual act, and endangering the welfare of a child.
 
The charges accused Williams of engaging in sexual intercourse with a 15-year-old male student, allegedly a family friend, at her residence on at least two separate nights between January 29, 2010, and February 5, 2010.
 
“The charges in both cases are disturbing on so many levels. As teachers and adults, the defendants were in positions of power and had no business having any contact with minors outside of school work,” Brown said.
 
Williams was released without bail, and if convicted she faces up to four years in prison.
 
 
 
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