A 40-year-old Special Education Bronx teacher was arrested and accused of raping a 10-year-old student yesterday. Anthony Criscuolo, who taught at PS 386, has been charged with first-degree rape and predatory sexual assault against a child. The family of the little girl say that Ciscuolo manipulated the girl by telling her she had won an award, then raped her in the back of a car. “He needs to die,” the girl’s grandmother told the Daily News.
The girl told detectives that Criscuolo had informed her she was going to receive an award on Monday—he allegedly forged a letter about the award on school letterhead to give to her mother. The girl's parents allowed him to take her to the award ceremony; but he instead took her to a parking lot and allegedly raped her in his car.
The girl’s mother called cops Tuesday after she found a series of sexually illicit emails sent by Criscuolo; in one of them, he claimed he had left his wife to be with the little girl. “He was manipulating her to keep her from talking,” the girl’s aunt, who also lives with the family, told the News. “She was scared.”
Other teachers and friends told the Post that there had been suspicious behavior before this between Criscuolo and his victim: “He used to always have a favorite student who was a girl. He got her a ring and everything — a real ring, a diamond ring,” said one former student. “They were acting like they were married.”
