Teacher Forces Students to Write to Inmate

(Queens, New York) It appears the heart of teacher Melissa Dean yearned for an inmate.

A Queens fifth-grade teacher faces termination after investigators determined she directed her class to write holiday cards she then sent to a prisoner who once had been charged with possession of child pornography.

A report released Wednesday by Richard Condon, special commissioner of investigation for New York City schools, found teacher Melissa Dean told her students at P.S. 143 in December that the holiday greetings were meant for the homeless, ill or lonely.

Instead, Ms. Dean is accused of mailing the cards—some containing identifying details and at least two with home addresses—to an upstate prison. The package was intercepted before it reached its intended recipient, officials said.

Ms. Dean, 31 years old, declined to speak to investigators, the report states.

Moral turpitude or lapse in judgment? Readers can decide.