Delsea Regional HS aide charged in sexual assault of 16-year-old student
By John Barna…www.nj.com
FRANKLIN TWP. — A teacher’s aide at Delsea Regional High School has had a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old student since August, police said Monday.
The aide, Joseph M. Stephenson, 29, of George Street has been charged with sexual assault. Stephenson, who is married, has been suspended without pay from his job.
School district officials alerted police Thursday night of allegations that a female student and Stephenson were involved in a relationship.
“Two students approached the principal based on information they saw on the victim’s phone,” Detective Sgt. Richard O’Brien said.
“We called police right away,” Superintendent of Schools Frank Borelli said. There was a meeting involving school officials and representatives of township police and the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office at 7:15 a.m. Friday.
Stephenson — whose wife was scheduled to deliver the couple’s second child by C-section on Saturday — was informed not to show up at Delsea on Friday, officials said.
Stephenson admitted the relationship during an interview with police — a session that was videotaped — O’Brien said.
Stephenson “confessed to having a sexual relationship on numerous occasions with the 16-year-old female since August of 2009,” O’Brien said.
The affair largely took place off campus although the suspect acknowledged to “making out in a closet within the school,” police said.
Stephenson was committed to the Gloucester County Jail, Woodbury. He was being detained in lieu of $100,000 cash bail set by Superior Court Judge Christine Allen-Jackson.
The suspect — a Delsea Regional graduate — has been employed by the Delsea district as an aide for approximately three years. Aides earn approximately $15 per hour, Borelli said.
Stephenson has had involvement in the district for approximately eight years — including serving as a substitute teacher and coach of the middle school boys soccer team and as a track coach, Borelli said.
The Delsea board of education is scheduled to meet Wednesday night. Stephenson’s status as a district employee is expected to part of the agenda, Borelli said.
Delsea supervisors were scheduled to hold meetings with faculty today regarding the matter, Borelli said. Counseling was to be made available to students.
