GAL TEACHER SENTENCED IN  BOY-RAPE

Mildred Colon, a 34 year old Catholic high school teacher, was arraigned on three counts of statutory rape and faces up to four years in prison for having a sex with a 16 year old student.  Colon denied the allegations for the second time in court.  She was ordered to stay away from the boy as well as from Cardinal Hayes High School, where she taught for two years.  Colon is the mother of an 11 year old girl and she has been fired from her job.  She pleaded not guilty when she briefly appeared at the Bronx Supreme Court.

Colon will be sentenced to not more than weekends in jail for six months and may avoid incarceration altogether.  It's pretty standard for teacher sex offenders to be sentenced very leniently, male or female, said Terri Miller, president of Survivors of Educator Sexual Abuse and Misconduct Emerge (SESAME), an Albany founded support group for victims of sex abuse by educators.  Female offenders rarely serve jail time, she said.  Our society does not deem abuse of a male victim by a female perpetrator as egregious as a male against a female, she said.  

Colon was given a slap on the wrist yesterday despite an anguished letter from the boy's family.  She was given a five-month sentence for statutory rape.  The sentence could be served concurrently with the seven-month term she was given in May after she pleaded guilty to having sex with the boy in her car on the Upper West Side.  

(New York)