By Yepoka Yeebo
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — A substitute teacher who allegedly sent several female students at the Essex Street Academy inappropriate messages on Facebook has been barred from teaching, according to news reports.
Stephen D'Andrilli "friended" several female students from the Lower East Side school on the social networking site, telling one that her "boyfriend [did not] deserve a beautiful girl like you," according to the New York Post.
He allegedly told another student she was pretty, and said he had tried to visit her during a class, a school investigation found.
D'Andrilli was one of three teachers from city schools fired for inappropriately contacting students on Facebook in the past six months according to the Post.
A male teacher at La Guardia High School near the Lincoln Center allegedly gave students who added him on Facebook extra credit, but was not disciplined, according to the Post.
Bronx teacher Chadwin Reynolds was reportedly sanctioned after allegedly writing comments like "this is sexy," under his students' Facebook photos. The Fordham High School for the Arts teacher also allegedly tried to get one student to go out with him by sending her flowers, candy and a teddy bear, the Post reported.
A Queens teacher, Laurie Hirsch, allegedly started dating a student after both she and he had left Bryant High School in Long Island City, the Post reported.
A Department of Education spokeswoman told the Post that they would "continually look at ways that our policies may need to evolve to keep pace with technology."
But Nancy Willard, director of the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use, told the Post it was time the DOE came up with a firm policy, "just because you have too many teachers who aren't going to think this out," she said.
"I think it's safer for teachers and students to be interacting on the educational plane - not a friendship plane," she told the paper. "Socializing on Facebook can cross over into areas that are potentially dangerous."
