NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Marcus and Takisha Randall, the parents of a 14-year-old boy who was sexually abused several times by a middle school teacher. (Alex Rud/For New York Daily News)
Takisha Randall's casual glance at her son's cell phone led to the daunting discovery that the 14-year-old boy was the victim of a sexual predator.
And the predator allegedly was her child's math teacher.
"I immediately saw text messages and images, pretty disturbing images," Randall said at a press conference at Brooklyn Borough Hall.
Pausing repeatedly to fight back tears and build up enough strength to continue, Randall recalled how one night last month she went into her son's room and saw the Lenox Academy Middle School student sitting on the bed staring at his cell phone.
The phone's screen was filled with lurid texts and images allegedly sent by the teacher, Andre Braddy.
"I felt lost. I was angry. I didn't know what to do," she said Saturday at the press conference organized by Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams. "I was pacing back and forth. Eventually I was able to talk to my husband about it."
Braddy, 34, was arrested on April 25 on a litany of sex abuse and child endangerment charges after police said NYPD detectives uncovered a month's worth of sexual abuse between the teacher and his eighth-grade student.
Braddy was released from jail Tuesday after posting $25,000 bail, according to court papers.
While he was behind bars, he was placed in protective custody and put on suicide watch, officials said.
Prosecutors say that since March 19, Braddy had three sexual encounters with Randall's son inside a classroom and a bathroom at Lenox Academy, which shares space with Public School 235 on Flatlands Ave. in Canarsie.
After Randall reached out to police, cops set up a controlled phone call between Braddy and the boy.
During the conversation, the teacher apologized for taking the boy's virginity and asked if he liked the photos, prosecutors said.
Randall said that the city Department of Education should be doing more to stop sexual predators like Braddy from being in public school classrooms.
"There has to be some questions answered," Randall said. "As parents, we all have a responsibility to make sure our children are safe.
"I entrusted them with my (child)," she said, breaking down in tears again.
Marcus Randall, Tanisha's husband and the teen's father, struggled to contain his anger Saturday.
"As a father, in a situation like this, what do you do?" he said.
"We (saw) this teacher weeks before we found out," he said. "It's like someone just stabbed you, not in the back, but in the heart, in front of you....For someone to confuse a child, to confuse him to say that he's in love, that's disturbing."
Adams called on the school to implement better policies to allow students to more easily report inappropriate conduct by their teachers.
"We need to bring in a child psychiatrist, sex crimes units and define what is the protocol for a child to report (abuse)," he said. "Right now we do not have one specific person where a child can say, 'I feel someone was treating me inappropriately.' Every child should be given instructions on good touch, bad touch."
City education officials said they're attempting to fire Braddy, and have made counselors available to students.
"Mr. Braddy was immediately reassigned pending an investigation into these troubling allegations," said DOE spokesman Douglas Cohen. "We are continuing to invest in and expand school climate initiatives that build positive and supportive school communities and ensure students have trusted adults they can talk to about any concerns."
Most of all, everyone at the press conference emphasized the importance of parents talking with their kids about what's happening with them at school and going through their cell phones to keep an eye out for inappropriate activity.
"I'm in pain. My wife's in pain. My family's in pain," said Marcus Randall. "Who's not in pain right now? The person who confused my son into falling in love with him."
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