An ex-student at Montessori School of Lake Forest has sued the school after claiming a teacher, Celina Montoya, engaged in a long-running “illegal sexual relationship” with him. The former student also alleges that Montoya sent him nude photographs.
Celina Montoya, 43 was convicted of criminal sexual assault of a child between the ages of 13 and 17 and was sentenced to four years in prison in 2016. According to Lake County Circuit court records, she is currently serving time at the Logan Correctional Center near Springfield.
The suit anonymously filed in Lake County last week claims that school officials allowed Montoya to have prolonged periods of time alone with the student, which she used to “manipulate” him into “in an inappropriate and illegal sexual relationship.”
via Chicago Tribune:
The suit, which also names Montoya as a defendant, says she hugged and kissed the boy at the school’s campus in Grayslake, engaged in romantic and sexually explicit conversations with him, told him she planned to marry him and sent him sexually explicit text messages, including nude photos of herself.
Lake County court records indicate Montoya was accused of having sexual contact with the victim at least 14 times between February 2012 and September 2013. She was indicted in 2015 on 14 counts of criminal sexual assault of a victim age 13 to 17, and three additional counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse.
Upon her conviction for criminal sexual assault, she was required to register as a sex offender. According to the lawsuit, Montoya’s relationship with the victim began in the fall of 2011 when he was 13 and in eighth grade and continued through the fall of 2013, when he told a therapist about the relationship and it was reported to police.
This is the latest in a string of teacher sex scandals over the last couple of years. In November, Tennessee teacher Janet Smothers was arrested. Former nutrition teacher LaToya Parker was also arrested for a relationship with a student. Florida teacher Caroline Lawson was charged with sexual assault. 26-year-old Allyson Moran was also arrested for similar crimes. The 23-year-old high school teacher Katherine Ross Ridenhour was also arrested for an inappropriate relationship.
Furthermore, Hunter Day, 22, was also arrested after a sting operation. Megan Kotarski was also arrested on similar charges. Michelle Schiffer, a 23-year-old history teacher in Texas, was also charged and arrested for allegedly having sex with a teenage student. 29-year-old Alyssia Marie Reddy was arrested in Maryland for her crimes in New Jersey. Samantha Fitzgerland, a 28-year-old, was most recently arrested and charged. Jordan Ondish was arrested for her inappropriate relationship with a 19-year-old, while 28-year-old Samantha Fitzpatrick was arrested on similar charges.
Nicole Marie Andrews was arrested as well. 32-year-old Jessica Langford was arrested and charged with sexual assault-related crimes as well. A teacher from Oregon, Andrea Baber, was accused of having a sexual relationship with a student. Robin Dunlap, a teacher in Florida, was arrested for sending illicit photos to a 15-year-old boy in Texas. Teacher and tennis coach Jennifer Olajire-Aro was also charged. 42-year-old Heather Butts of California was arrested on a second-degree felony charge. Nancy Leigh Ann Brann, a former Christian school teacher, was arrested for having sex with a student. Coine Audiat pleaded no contest to having sex with a minor in 2016. 23-year-old Darci Lake was arrested for an inappropriate relationship.
