is charged with criminal Angelica Rangel, 24, is charged with criminal sexual assault for allegedly having sex eight to ten times with an underage student while she was a teacher in LaGrange Park, Ill. (Photo Credit: Pioneer Press)
Updated 4/15/2011 at 9:00 p.m.
BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. (CBS) – A former LaGrange Park teacher has been charged with having sex with an underage student on multiple occasions.
Angelica Rangel, 24, is charged with criminal sexual assault for allegedly having sex eight to ten times with the student between Oct. 22, 2010, and March 31, 2011, while she was a Spanish teacher at Nazareth Academy in LaGrange Park.
Prosecutors said the incidents, which included “sexual penetration,” occurred at Rangel’s home in Justice and once in her car in North Riverside.
Rangel allegedly admitted the encounters to police after her arrest in Justice, a spokesperson for the Cook County state’s attorney’s office said. Rangel was ordered held on $150,000 bond on Friday during a hearing at the Bridgeview courthouse.
The victim’s cell phone contained photos of him and Rangel together at her home, and a photo of Rangel in a bath tub with her breasts partially exposed, prosecutors said in court.
Rangel worked for two years as a Spanish teacher at Nazareth Academy at 1209 W. Ogden, and the victim was in her Spanish class for two years, court records show. She has been fired by the school.
A statement from the school on Friday afternoon said the administration is “deeply saddened by recent events surrounding an inappropriate relationship between one of our students and a teacher. The teacher was immediately terminated after the administration learned of the situation.
“We will now focus our efforts as a management team to make sure that this never happens again and begin the process of helping our community with any healing that may need to take place,” the statement said.
On Friday, Judge Colleen McSweeney Moore set bond at $150,000 and ordered Rangel to have no contact with the victim, the victim’s family or anyone under age 18 if she is freed on bail.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for May 6 in Bridgeview.
Students were shocked to hear the allegations against their teacher.
“I mean, I guess it’s been going on for a long time,” sophomore Michael Straface told CBS 2′s Pamela Jones.
No answered at Rangel’s door Friday night. Neighbors who live near the teacher’s home say they’d only seen her in passing and that she’d only lived there for a year.
(The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.)
