A teacher’s aide from Falls Township in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, was charged recently with the sexual assault of a 14-year-old student.
“Jennilynne Derolf, 38, was charged with several felony counts including involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and statutory sexual assault,” ABC 6 reported Friday.
Derolf worked as an aide in the teen’s classroom at Valley Day School located in Falls Township, according to authorities.
The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office said the investigation began Tuesday after the victim’s grandmother called police to notify them of the alleged sexual relationship between the teenage student and Derolf.
The district attorney’s office continued on its website:
The victim was interviewed by Falls Township detectives, and he explained that his relationship with his teacher’s aide began with them messaging each other discreetly on a cellphone messaging app and then meeting at Falls Township Park. In early June 2021, their meetings became romantic, he told Falls Township detectives. He said he and Derolf had sexual intercourse three times in July, twice in the area of the Levittown Lake in Tullytown Borough and once near a baseball field in Bristol Township.
“The defendant’s conduct is not only reprehensible, but criminal,” District Attorney Matt Weintraub stated.
“She not only violated the trust required in any student teacher relationship, but also that trust that children should be able to have in all adults of authority. She will be held accountable for her criminal acts,” he added.
The school serves students in the Delaware Valley who need special attention and are deemed emotionally disturbed or neurologically impaired. Children with autism also attend, according to the ABC 6 report.
Executive Director Robert Phillips told the outlet Derolf had been fired.
“When we were notified of the charges, we immediately removed the staff person from the building,” he explained. “Next week clinical staff will be in to speak with students and staff who need to talk through this process.”
Derolf was being held inside the Bucks County Correctional Facility on ten percent of $900,000.