Olney man charged with unlawful sexual contact with Cheltenham teen inside high school
Jamaal Raheem, 21, told the girl he was 17 and persuaded him to have sexual contact at Cheltenham High School, according to police.
An Olney man posing as a teenager groomed an underage student into a relationship, police said Tuesday, and persuaded her to enter Cheltenham High School after hours and have sexual contact.
Jamaal Raheem, 21, has been charged with unlawful sexual contact with a minor, corruption of minors, and related crimes for the incident, which came to light late last week after Raheem’s preliminary hearing when administrators at Cheltenham School District sent a letter to parents about the case.
Raheem was released on $100,000 unsecured bail. His attorney, Kenneth Carlton Edelin Jr., did not immediately return a request for comment.
The letter to parents about the incident came days after Abington School District announced a review of its security protocols following the arrest of a man who, in a nearly identical case, repeatedly gained unauthorized access to the district’s high school from a female student.
Cheltenham investigators say Raheem and a female Cheltenham High student were found inside the school on April 29. The two gained access to the building and walked throughout it until stopping at a stairwell, where the girl performed oral sex on him, according to the affidavit of probable cause for Raheem’s arrest
District officials found them and asked them to leave, according to a letter from Cheltenham Superintendent Dr. Brian W. Scriven. The district filed a report with the state Department of Human Services ChildLine system and contacted local police as well as the girl’s parents.
“While it’s unfortunate that this incident occurred, we are reassured that our recently updated building safety protocol prompted administration to respond in a timely manner,” Scriven said in his letter.
Two days later, the girl’s parents met with Cheltenham Police, the affidavit said. In an interview with detectives, the girl said that she met Raheem through Snapchat and that he told her he was 17. He had sent her explicit images and asked her to send some of herself, which she declined to do.
The two continued to talk through social media and eventually agreed to meet. Police found that Raheem also attempted to get a job at the restaurant where the girl worked but that his application was denied.
After they were caught in the school, the girl tried to arrange a meeting between Raheem and her parents, according to the affidavit. He asked her whether they knew the two were dating.
Later, when the girl’s mother texted Raheem using her daughter’s cell phone, telling him she was contacting the police, he lied and said he was 18, “is also a child,” and is still in high school.
In the Abington case reported last week, Raeem Grange-Allen, 25, met a female Abington Senior High School student online and later asked the girl to let him into the school “and requested she perform oral sex on him behind a stairwell,” according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest.
The girl told police that she “saw him or let him into the school approximately three to four times.”
Grange-Allen later tried to rape the girl inside her home, according to police. His criminal trial on attempted rape by force and attempted statutory sexual assault is pending.
