Teacher Accused of Sex Assault Wanted Smaller 'Buffer Zone' Keeping Her from Teen. The Judge Said No

An Illinois judge has denied a petition to alteration nan “buffer zone” betwixt a joined coach and nan teenage student she is accused of sexually assaulting 50 times.

Arrested during a postulation extremity successful March, nan footage of which went viral connected societal media, Christina Formella, 30, a erstwhile typical acquisition teacher, is charged pinch 55 counts of criminal intersexual assault, aggravated criminal intersexual abuse, grooming and indecent inducement of a child.

The judge allowed her to beryllium released arsenic she awaits proceedings connected nan information that she refrain from contacting nan teenage alleged unfortunate aliases anyone nether nan property of 18, aliases participate Downers Grove South High School — wherever she'd been a coach earlier resigning — DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said successful June.

Part of her pre-trial merchandise includes wearing a GPS show that prohibits her from coming wrong 5,000 feet of nan alleged victim’s home, schoolhouse aliases workplace, nan Chicago Tribune reports.

Formella’s lawyer had asked nan judge to trim nan buffer area to 2,500 feet because nan alleged unfortunate useful a mile from her home, which is successful nan larger buffer zone, according to nan Chicago Tribune.

But during Wednesday’s hearing, which Formella attended pinch her husband, nan judge denied nan request, citing nan request to guarantee nan information of nan alleged victim, according to nan Chicago Tribune.

The alleged crimes came to ray erstwhile nan teen's mother recovered a disturbing text thread betwixt her boy and nan coach detailing their alleged relationship, prosecutors said.

Formella was initially charged pinch 1 count of criminal intersexual battle and 2 counts of aggravated criminal intersexual abuse.

In June, prosecutors unsealed dozens much counts, charging her pinch 55 full counts involving “previously chartless intersexual maltreatment and battle of nan student,” Berlin said successful a June 17 property release.

Prosecutors allege that nan intersexual maltreatment began successful January 2023, erstwhile nan boy was 14, and continued done August/September 2024, Berlin said successful nan release.

“It is alleged that during this time, Formella sent nan unfortunate aggregate matter messages that were grooming successful quality and that she and nan unfortunate had engaged successful intersexual acts astir 50 times, some astatine nan schoolhouse and astatine Formella’s home, including astatine slightest forty-five times astatine nan school."

Prosecutors allege that Formella kept a “memoir” connected her phone’s notes app detailing her evident anger astatine nan teen, including writings that claimed nan boy “cheated connected me.”

“We will ne'er ever beryllium together again,” Formella allegedly wrote. “I'm not a 2nd choice. I'm nan champion point you'll ever person moreover pinch each of my mistakes.”

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Formella has denied ever having activity pinch nan teen.

Her lawyer did not respond to PEOPLE's petition for comment.

The allegations against Formella "are beyond disturbing,” Berlin said successful nan June 17 release.

Formella is scheduled to return to tribunal connected August 4, 2025.

In a connection to PEOPLE, a spokesperson for nan family of Formella said, successful part: "The nationalist shaming of women accused of intersexual misconduct reflects profoundly embedded patterns of misogyny that person persisted crossed generations. Christina has go nan latest target of this troubling arena — subjected to relentless individual attacks and sexist scrutiny that disregard nan ineligible process entirely."

The connection later added, "This isn’t conscionable a double standard. It’s a spectacle — a nationalist ritual that punishes women not for what they’ve done, but for really they’re perceived. Instead of discussing facts aliases law, nationalist sermon fixates connected Christina’s appearance, her backstage life, moreover her lipstick — arsenic if those specifications carnivore connected guilt aliases innocence. That’s not ineligible analysis. It’s voyeurism, civilized judgment, and cruelty — excused by a self-serving capacity of interest for an alleged victim."

If you aliases personification you cognize has been a unfortunate of intersexual abuse, matter "STRENGTH" to nan Crisis Text Line astatine 741-741 to beryllium connected to a certified situation counselor.

If you aliases personification you cognize has been sexually assaulted, please interaction nan National Sexual Assault Hotline astatine 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) aliases spell to rainn.org.