Queens Teacher Raped 14-Year-Old Boy Student: Police

QUEENS, NY — A Queens teacher raped and sexually abused a 14-year-old boy student, police said.

Melissa Rockensies, 32, of Massapequa, on Tuesday became the second Queens educator in as many days to be arrested on accusations they had an inappropriate relationship with a student, authorities said.

And, within hours, police said they arrested another Department of Education employee in Queens — Brooke Scheer, 28 — on drug and weapon charges.

Rockensies is a married middle school dean at Corona Arts and Sciences Academy who once shared a Facebook post about how to help "kids understand consent," the New York Post first reported.

She also was one of the boy's summer school teachers and counselors in July 2022, when she began to engage him with sexual conversations on social media, prosecutors said.

Starting in September 2022, Rockensies began to regularly meet the boy inside her vehicle near the school, where she started sexual activity, authorities said.

Rockensies faces charges of rape, a criminal sex act and endangering the welfare of a child.

"These disturbing allegations represent an abuse of authority and a
betrayal of the trust students and parents place in their schools," Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said.

Rockensies' arrest followed a similar, but unrelated Queens case involving Jamall Russell, 29, a Queens school paraprofessional who's accused of raping a girl student starting when she was 14.