An NYC high school devolved into a depraved den of deviants, according to city investigators, who found that one aide had sex with a student at least three times during lunch period, and are probing a second staffer for a similarly-twisted interaction with a pupil.
“Community associate” Ocean Valentine, then 22, first approached a 17-year-old student at The Urban Assembly Early College High School of Emergency Medicine in Manhattan in May 2022, telling him she was active on Instagram, according to a newly-released report by the Special Commissioner of Investigation for the NYC schools.
The student found Valentine’s Instagram profile, and the two began exchanging messages through the platform. Before long, though, she shared her phone number, and they started texting each other, investigators found.
The boy told investigators their text messages became sexual soon after she gave the teen her number, in late May or early June 2022, according to the SCI report.
The teen told investigators he had “intercourse” with the aide in his parents’ apartment one afternoon during lunchtime after ducking out of the 297-student school on Pearl Street near NYPD headquarters.
“He and Valentine left during lunch — while school was still in session — to engage in sexual intercourse. They walked across the street from the school to [the student’s] apartment. After this initial encounter, [the student] recalled that twice more, they left during lunch period to have intercourse,” the report says.
One of those other encounters was inside a private room at Sharks, a pool hall, where they had gone to celebrate the student’s 18th birthday, investigators allege.
The misconduct came to light after a female classmate of the teen said she accidentally saw some of the texts on the boy’s phone. She also said she saw a photo of a hotel receipt in one of the text messages.
The female student apparently blurted out something about “staff members … having sex with students” within earshot of an official at the school. Soon after, the female student told the official which staffer he was referencing, the report says.
As investigators conducted their probe in early 2023 and were taking pictures of text messages on the student’s phone, he received a message from Valentine, asking, “What’s going on?” the report says.
Ten days later, the teen told investigators Valentine was trying to contact him. He provided screenshots of his missed calls, which showed two calls at 10:07 pm and 10:08 pm from “Ocean.”
Investigators confirmed the calls after obtaining Valentine’s phone records. A search found 34 contacts between Valentine and [the student], including six calls after 7:00 pm and six on weekends.
Valentine was suspended without pay. She had a city salary of $34,415 in 2023, but took home $15,250 before her dismissal by the city Department of Education.
In another case at the school, The Post confirmed that a male aide is also the subject of an ongoing SCI probe for alleged sexual contract with a female pupil who also accused the aide of stealing $5,000 from her.
No other details were available, as the final report is pending.
In Valentine’s case, SCI Anastasia Coleman recommended an update to the DOE’s social media policy to bar employees from contacting students on such accounts and on personal cell phones.
Coleman has made this recommendation dozens of times in recent years, but the DOE has yet to amend the policy.
Valentine could not be reached for comment. The DOE did not return a request for comment.
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