Teacher facing teen-sex trial
Student says affair was consensual
A former teacher at Kensington Creative and Performing Arts High School was held for trial yesterday in connection with a consensual sexual relationship he had with a student.
According to the student's testimony in Family Court yesterday, Justin Freeland-Sokol, then a music teacher at Kensington CAPA, took the student to his home four times this year and had sex with her twice.
Freeland-Sokol, 27, was fired from the school, on Cumberland Street near Coral, after a school investigation.
The girl, who was 16 at the time of the alleged incidents, testified yesterday that around the time of the Christmas break, Freeland-Sokol, who was her teacher, kissed her in the back of the school auditorium.
Starting in January, she agreed to leave the Kensington school during school hours and meet Freeland-Sokol at a nearby pizza shop, from where, she said, he would drive her to his house in South Philadelphia, on Alter Street near Front.
She said she went to his house four times from January to February.
One time, "we just talked," she said. "We talked and we kissed."
And on the last occasion, "we just talked and played with the dogs," she said under questioning by Assistant District Attorney Chesley Lightsey.
But she said they had sex the other two times.
The girl, now 17, said that after spending time at her teacher's house, Freeland-Sokol would then drive her back to school about 3:30 p.m.
She admitted that she had wanted to go to the teacher's house and have sex with him.
Freeland-Sokol is charged with corruption of a minor and endangering the welfare of a child.
Defense attorney Jonathan Krinick argued against a charge of interference with the custody of children, a third-degree felony, which Common Pleas Senior Judge Alfred J. DiBona Jr. agreed to dismiss.
Lightsey said afterward that the endangerment charge, which the defendant was held on, is a third-degree felony because the offense was said to have occurred more than once, and that the corruption charge is a misdemeanor.
A school district spokesman, Vincent Thompson, said afterward that the principal of Kensington CAPA had learned of the allegations against Freeland-Sokol on Feb. 2, and that she "immediately urged that the teacher be assigned to the regional office pending the outcome of the investigation."
Freeland-Sokol was told to report to the regional office, where he was not dealing with any kids, on Feb. 3. He was fired from the school district March 27, Thompson said.
Freeland-Sokol had been in his third year of teaching at the school, which opened four years ago, Thompson said.
In 2005, the district divided Kensington High School into three schools: a culinary school, a business school and Kensington CAPA.
"The district does not tolerate inappropriate behavior by employees, and we urge prosecution to the fullest extent of the law," Thompson said.
Freeland-Sokol is out on bail. *