Teacher arraigned for propositioning students

A math teacher at a Forest Hills middle school has been arraigned on charges of child endangerment for having engaged in sexually explicit communications with eight of his former or present male students - all of whom are either 12 or 13 years old.
Bradley Dieffenbacher, 33, of Levittown, Long Island, was a math teacher at M.S. 190Q in Forest Hills who resigned on Thursday, February 14.
He was arraigned on Saturday, February 23 before Queens Criminal Court Judge Joseph Zayas on a 16-count criminal complaint charging him with one count of use of a child in a sexual performance, three counts of attempted use of a child in a sexual performance, one count of promoting a sexual performance by a child, three counts of attempted promoting of a sexual performance by a child and eight counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
Dieffenbacher, who faces up to 15 years in state prison if convicted, was ordered held on $150,000 bail and to return to court on March 10.
According to the charges, at various times between April 1, 2007, and February 20, 2008, Dieffenbacher, who had been at the school since September 2000, sent instant messages over the Internet to eight adolescent boys who had been or were presently students in his junior high school math class. During these conversations, it is alleged that Dieffenbacher asked the students individually if they masturbated, if they liked pornography, if they had a web cam and if they - Dieffenbacher and the student - could masturbate together and broadcast themselves masturbating over the web cameras. Dieffenbacher allegedly sent several of the students links to various Internet pornography sites.
Margie Feinberg, a spokesperson for the Department of Education (DOE), told The Courier Sun, “He is on the DOE’s ineligible list, meaning he can never work for us again. This is unacceptable behavior, of course.”
She went on to explain that, as far as the victims are concerned, “Whenever we have kids who have been through a trauma, we provide counseling, reach out to the parents, and also have a crisis team.”
All DOE employees are fingerprinted and background checks are performed prior to hire, according to Feinberg.