Teacher's aide charged with rape for 'having sex with 15yr old male special needs student

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A teacher's aide working at an upstate New York school for children with special needs has been arrested for allegedly having sex with a 15-year-old student in a park.

Alexandra Culhane, 24, was taken into custody on Monday and charged with felony rape and criminal sex act stemming from a suspected sexual encounter with the teenage boy a year ago.

According to Prosecutor John Carson, Culhane, who worked at The School at Northeast in Schenectady, engaged in oral sex and sexual intercourse with the victim in early April 2016 in the city’s Central Park.

The allegations against Culhane first came to light last year, when some of her colleagues at the school learned of her alleged tryst with the 15-year-old and contacted the Schenectady Police Department, sparking a months-long investigation, according to the Albany Times-Union.
Carson said on Tuesday that evidence gathered by police and the Justice Center for the Protection of People with Disabilities suggests that Culhane met the victim while he was enrolled at the school.

The School at Northeast serves special-needs children in grades 6 through 12. It is operated by Northern Rivers Family of Services.

A representative of the company said Culhane had worked for them for about a year. She had been placed on administrative leave at the outset of the criminal investigation last year, and was fired in February 2017.
The 24-year-old also coached the girls' junior varsity field hockey team at her alma mater, Scotia-Glenville High School, in the fall of 2015 and the fall of 2016, reported the station WNYT.

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