A social worker at Pine Bush High School has been arrested and charged after authorities say she carried on an inappropriate relationship with a 14-year-old male student, News 12 reported. The case has shaken the Orange County community, where residents said they were stunned to learn that the allegations involved a member of staff entrusted with supporting students at the school.
Crawford police arrested 39-year-old Gina Moda Ferry after investigators said the inappropriate relationship had unfolded over the course of several months. The length of time described by authorities pointed to a sustained pattern rather than a single incident, and it became central to the case that police built before bringing a charge against her.
According to investigators, the relationship included kissing, text messaging, home visits, and marijuana. An official source told News 12 that Moda Ferry had worked with the boy one on one as part of her job as a social worker at the school, a role that gave her regular, direct contact with the student at the center of the allegations.
Police allege that Moda Ferry kissed the student multiple times and gave him marijuana vape pens and marijuana. She is also accused of smoking with him as many as 20 times, according to the account, with the drug use described by investigators as a recurring feature of the alleged relationship between the social worker and the teenager.
News 12 reported that the alleged relationship was uncovered not by the school itself but by the child's own family. After becoming aware of what was happening, the family then notified the school, setting in motion the process that would ultimately lead to a police investigation and the charge now facing the former social worker.
Reached by phone, Moda Ferry denied the allegations and said she hoped to keep the matter low and out of the press while the case moves through the court system. She has been charged with endangering the welfare of a child and has pleaded not guilty, and she is due back in court later this month as the case proceeds.
Pine Bush school officials say Moda Ferry resigned from the district back in April, and the district is now updating its policy on communication between staff and students. The news left community members rattled, with one district grandparent saying she was saddened by the allegations and that Pine Bush had always felt like a very safe place.