WOODBRIDGE, N.J. (AP) – March 6, 2007 – A high school teacher was arrested Tuesday on charges that she sent several sexually explicit text messages to a 17-year-old student who attends the school where she teaches and a 16-year-old student whom she previously taught.
Karen Binder, 42, of Manalapan, faces two counts of second-degree official misconduct. If convicted, she could
face up to 10 years in state prison on each count. The 17-year-old boy’s parents notified officials at Colonia High School in Woodbridge last month about the sexually explicit text messages on their son’s mobile phone, police told The Star-Ledger of Newark.
Binder asked for the boy’s phone number during school hours because she said she needed to discuss something with him, according to the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office. Binder told him in her messages that she wanted to perform a sex act on him, police said.
An investigation revealed that Binder was also sending sexually explicit text messages to a 16-year-old boy she previously taught at Iselin Middle School, police said. The messages became sexual during 2006 and continued until recently, police said.
Binder was being held on $150,000 bail at the Middlesex County jail in North Brunswick.