Add The New York Post on Google A fired Long Island art teacher accused of raping one of his students inside his classroom has been arrested for allegedly stalking the same girl.
The former Bay Shore High School student called 911 when she allegedly spotted John Kennedy, 53, following her after she left her Bay Shore home and headed to an undisclosed location in Selden Thursday morning, according to Suffolk County cops.
“Suffolk County Police today arrested a high school teacher for stalking a former student that he had sexual affairs with previously,” a spokesperson for the police department said, adding that he was cuffed at his St. James home Thursday evening.
John Kennedy, 53, was arrested for stalking a former student that he is accused of grooming and raping. Suffolk County Police Department Kennedy’s alleged attempts to stalk the girl — who is now 18 — come just barely a week after the unnamed accuser filed a scathing lawsuit against the Bay Shore school district, accusing administrators of failing to protect her from a “serial sexual predator” who routinely raped her in his own classroom, according to court papers.
The ex-educator, who many former and current students once described as their “favorite” teacher, was first exposed by The Post in October for having sex with the 17-year-old student — a senior in his art class at the time — after he was placed on administrative leave over the sordid affair.
The girl was of the legal age of consent in New York at the time of the alleged abuse, and a Suffolk County police probe was initially closed after finding no evidence of criminal conduct.
But her lawyer, Andrew Silvershein, claimed Kennedy occupied a position of power as a teacher that made the relationship inherently exploitative, regardless of the age of consent.
The lawsuit also alleged the school district had an obligation to protect the former student from being sexually groomed by the teacher — and ignored warning signs along the way.
Bay Shore High School. Google Maps Bay Shore Superintendent Steven Maloney has maintained that the district acted swiftly once it learned of the allegations and immediately placed Kennedy on administrative leave, barred the creep from campus and alerted Suffolk police.
The scandal marks the third high-profile incident involving possible sexual misconduct by Bay Shore teachers.
In November 2024, the district was ordered to pay $25 million in damages tied to a case involving Thomas Bernagozzi, a retired third-grade teacher who was accused of sexually abusing students for more than three decades.
A Suffolk County jury found the district ignored repeated warning signs about the child predator, whose abuse spanned the 1970s through the early 2000s — and over 50 former students have since come forward.
Marcus Johnson, a teacher’s assistant at the high school, was also charged with raping a 15-year-old student in 2017.
The Post was unable to find a working phone number for Kennedy.
