An Illinois special education teacher and soccer coach, Christina Formella, 30, has been accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old student. Formella, who works at Downers Grove South High School, has denied the allegations, claiming that she is being framed by the teenager due to her attractive appearance.
Formella, who married her college sweetheart in August of the previous year, is alleged to have assaulted the student before the start of the school day in December 2023, according to DuPage County prosecutors. She has refuted these claims, suggesting that the student had hacked into her phone and used her number to send inappropriate messages to himself as part of a blackmail scheme.
Court documents reveal that Formella claimed the student had taken her phone, entered her passcode, sent the message to his phone, deleted the message from her phone, and saved it on his phone for blackmail purposes. The messages were discovered by the student’s mother when she purchased a new phone for him and linked it to his iCloud account.
The messages reportedly sent by Formella in 2023, when she was 28, included explicit content such as “I love having sex with you.” The student allegedly responded with equally explicit messages. The relationship reportedly continued until the student ended it.
Upon discovering the messages, the student’s mother reported the alleged abuse to the Downers Grove police. Formella was subsequently charged with two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse and one count of criminal sexual assault. She was released on the condition that she not enter school grounds or have contact with anyone under 18. She has also been placed on paid leave from her job.
Students at Downers Grove High School have been encouraged to report any suspicious or dangerous behavior to the police or the school. Board of Education President Don Renner assured in a statement that all reports would be taken seriously.
Formella, who earned her teaching license in 2017 after graduating from Concordia University Chicago, has been teaching at Downers Grove High since 2020. She and her husband, both former student athletes, met at the university where she played soccer and he played baseball.
Newly released bodycam footage shows Formella breaking down in tears during her arrest on March 16. Her next court appearance is scheduled for April 14.