A furious dad yesterday exploded at his 12-year- old daughter’s former teacher after she pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting the girl – and was freed with a slap on the wrist.
“You stole something personal and precious from my daughter!” the bitter father roared at Lynn Saunders, who worked as a basketball coach at St. Paul’s, a Catholic school in the New Brighton section of Staten Island.
“You robbed my daughter of her innocence,” he screamed, his voice so angry that seven court officers surrounded him, fearing he might attack Saunders.
The 38-year-old teacher mumbled to herself, her words unintelligible, as she listened to the furious father.
Moments earlier, Saunders had pleaded guilty to sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child in exchange for six years’ probation – a deal made by the DA with the approval of the child’s family to spare the victim from testifying.
Saunders was charged with seducing her student at St. Paul’s last February, then taking her to see the Will Smith movie “Hitch,” where she kissed the girl and groped her thigh.
Later, according to court papers, the teacher took the girl to her own home, where they groped each other.
The girl’s parents had been ignorant of the relationship and assumed Saunders was being a mentor to their child – until the mother discovered steamy text messages on the daughter’s cellphone.
“I miss you madly. I want to be with you in a way that’s unacceptable . . . I’m upset that I never get to be with you,” Saunders wrote to the girl, according to court papers.
In a victim-impact statement, read before Criminal Court Judge Desmond Green, the parents blasted Saunders as a “wolf” and a “snake.”
Saunders, who no longer works at the school and is receiving counseling, would not talk about the case outside the courtroom.
“God bless you,” she told reporters as she left. She will now be required to register as a sex offender.
The family’s lawyer, Anthony Gair, said the parents are mulling civil action against the school, which has an enrollment of about 230 students in kindergarten through eighth grade.