US teacher accused of threatening to ‘out’ straight pupil
A New York teacher has been accused of threatening to ‘out’ a straight nine-year-old boy.
The New York Post reports that Jared Alessandroni, 29, a teacher at the South Bronx Charter School, told pupil James Pastrana that he would tell the class James was gay, unless the pupil told a girl he had a crush on that he was gay.
James, who identifies as straight, reportedly did as he was told and reluctantly scribbled a note to the girl.
He said: “I was so humiliated. It started to spread around the whole class and then everyone wanted to call me gay.”
The details were in a lawsuit filed this week. Another suit alleges that the teacher had twisted an eight-year-old boy’s arm because he disliked the way the child was walking.
Mr Alessandroni left the school last year. He told the newspaper that the allegations had been investigated by the Department of Education and no wrong-doing was found.
