Teacher Arrested In Attempt To Lure Child Into Liaison
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A Queens man who was characterized as a model teacher was arrested Wednesday for allegedly luring a 13-year-old child to meet him for a liaison.
The man, Alan Schaefer, 43, groomed his victim – who was actually an undercover police officer – between July 7 and 20 through communications in chat rooms, through instant messaging, and e-mail, investigators said.
Mr. Schaefer made plans with his victim on Tuesday to hook up the following day in Washington Square Park, the district attorney’s office said. The suspect brought his 14-month-old child to the meeting, the D.A.’s office said. Mr. Schaefer, his child, and his victim were on their way to a Greenwich Village apartment, because the suspect believed they were going to the victim’s apartment, when police said they arrested him in the lobby of the building.
Mr. Schaefer is a tenured music teacher at Louis Pasteur Middle School 67, a public school for 1,130 sixth through ninth-graders in Little Neck on Long Island. The Queens resident has worked at the school since 1986, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education, Michele Higgins, said. Before that, he taught at M.S. 216 in Flushing as well as M.S. 62 in Brooklyn, she said. He started his career as a substitute teacher in 1983.
“He will be reassigned to a location where he will not be near or in contact with children pending the outcome of the [police] investigation,” Ms. Higgins said. Since he is not teaching in summer school, he is likely to be assigned to an administrative post starting in September, she said.
When told by a reporter about the arrest, the principal of M.S. 67, Zoi McGrath said, “I’m stunned right now.”
Louis Caputo, who has taught music with Mr. Schaefer for nine years, was shocked to learn of the allegations.
“I thought he was an exemplary teacher, honestly.” Mr. Schaefer assisted with discipline at the school “mostly because of being a straight arrow,” Mr. Caputo said. “This seems so out of character,” he added.
Mr. Schaefer was waiting to be arraigned on charges of three counts of attempted dissemination of indecent material to minors, one count of attempted sexual abuse, one count of endangering the welfare of a child, and one count of attempted endangering the welfare of a child. He faces four years in prison if convicted of the most serious charge of attempted disseminating of indecent material to minors.
