Teacher crossed the line from ‘being morally repugnant to being criminal’

When a 17-year-old high school student came across a profile of his former teacher on Tinder he was curious.

Believing the account on the online dating site to be fake, he reached out to the user in an attempt to expose the person he thought was pretending to be a popular teacher at Denis Morris Catholic Elementary School.

It soon became clear to the Grade 11 student, however, that the woman was indeed his former teacher, Stephanie Colangelo.

The teen, together with several classmates between the ages of 16 and 17, saw an opportunity “for what they thought would be some harmless fun,” assistant Crown attorney Holly Nickel said in an Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines, Tuesday.

The woman’s casual conversations with the boys, however, quickly took on a darker tone as her messages became sexual in nature. She also sent the students sexually explicit photographs and videos of herself.

“The accused’s behaviour repeatedly crossed the line from initially being morally repugnant to being criminal,” the Crown told Judge Fergus O’Donnell.

Colangelo, 41, received a conditional sentence of two years less a day Tuesday after she pleaded guilty to a charge of luring a child. The first 10 months of the sentence will be served under house arrest.

The disgraced teacher was also placed on probation for 12 months and banned from seeking employment that involves being in a position of trust or authority toward anyone under the age of 16.

In a joint submission presented by the Crown and defence, court was told the case was a rare example where custody was not required in order to strike a proper balance between protection of the public and punishment of the offender.

“It was not typical in any way of the premeditated, predatory behaviour we usually see in these types of cases … however, that does not take away from the criminality of Ms. Colangelo’s conduct,” Nickel said.

The Port Colborne educator was arrested in June 2018 following an investigation by Niagara Regional Police.

Court heard the inappropriate conversations occurred over a few days, and that the defendant was under the influence of alcohol at the time.

Ultimately, the boys came to the conclusion their interaction with the teacher had gone far enough, and stopped communicating with the defendant. They did, however, share the inappropriate videos and photos with other students.

The defendant’s teaching certificate has been suspended and her name will appear on the national sex offender registry for the next 20 years.