Illinois Teacher Charged with Molesting Student …

An Illinois special education teacher charged with molesting her 15 year-old student said she was blackmailed by the victim due to her “good” looks.

Christina Formella, a 30 year-old teacher, said she did not assault the teenager while tutoring him at Downers Grove South High School in December 2023 after the student’s mother uncovered the alleged assault through text messages on his phone.

The teacher, who is married, reportedly told investigators that the student had used her phone to send himself inappropriate text messages to “blackmail” her.

“She claimed that one day, [the boy] had grabbed her phone unattended, had entered her passcode… had sent the message to his phone, had then deleted the message from her phone, and had saved it to his phone as blackmail,” court documents detailed.

Formella has claimed that her looks and caring “too much” made her an easy target of blackmail.

According to court records, Formella said “everybody comes after her because she is good looking and she is just a good person who cared too much about [the boy].”

The New York Post reported:

She allegedly came across text messages between her son and Formella that discussed sexual contact — and even a relationship, which the boy reportedly ended.

After confronting her son, they both went to the Downers Grove Police Department that day to report their allegations, and investigators said they discovered additional evidence indicating sexual contact between the two.

Formella denied the allegations and has told law enforcement that she never had sex with the teenager. She was charged with two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse and one count of criminal sexual assault.

DuPage County Attorney Robert Berlin said, “The allegations against Ms. Formella are extremely disturbing.”

“It is alleged that she used her position of trust and authority as a tutor and a coach to sexually assault a minor student. The type of abuse and behavior alleged in this case will not be tolerated,” the attorney continued.

“An adult has been charged with the most serious of violations, and trust has been broken. Our team is here to support students who are impacted by this terrible news,” School principal Arwen Lyp said in a message to parents.