Pennsylvania school officials said Friday that a high school teacher has been charged with eight felonies including institutional sexual assault that included a student.
Melissa Bonkoski, 38, a science teacher at Owen J. Roberts High School in Pottstown was charged with eight felonies Friday. The charges include “three counts of institutional sexual assault, three counts of unlawful contact with a minor; one count of corruption of minors and one count of criminal use of a communication facility,” according to the Daily Local.
Bonkoski is slated to appear for a preliminary hearing Thursday. Bonkoski posted $80,000 bond herself. The charges date back to Dec. 1, 2015, according to court records.
No further information was immediately available.
The Owen J. Roberts School District was informed of the charges Friday and have since deleted Bonkoski’s about me page from their website. The district asked the woman to resign.
“Upon learning of the filing of these charges, the school district asked for, and received, Bonkoski’s immediate resignation from her employment as a teacher,” Anthony Costello, the district’s acting superintendent, told the Daily Local.
Costello asked “any community members who are aware of information related to these criminal charges to report it to the school district or the Chester County Detective’s Office.”
“[The district] will not be providing any further public comment at this time due to the prosecution of the active criminal case,” Costello said. Bonkoski was in her “second year teaching earth science” at the school and had previously taught in Miami, Fla. and West Philadelphia, according to her biography page on the district’s website.
