Ontario special education teacher gets three years in prison for sexually exploiting student
Warning: This story contains graphic content
The head of the special education department at an Ontario high school has been sentenced to three years in prison for sexually exploiting a student 31 years his junior.
Tony Paniccia pleaded guilty this past January to three counts of sexual exploitation for arranging clandestine meetings in his car with the teen in early 2024. After he hugged, touched and kissed her during the first two late-night encounters, the teen sent him a Telegram message saying she didn’t want to meet with him again outside of school “because she felt disgusted.”
The teen told Paniccia, now 49, that she couldn’t meet up with him anymore because he was a teacher, according to a recent sentencing decision from the Ontario Court of Justice.
“Mr. Paniccia told her that she broke his heart which made her feel badly,” Justice Joseph F. Kenkel wrote in an April 30 decision out of Newmarket.
They met for a third time outside school on Feb. 15, 2024.
“She agreed to meet because she felt sorry for him and she thought he would respect her wishes to do nothing other than talk,” Kenkel said.
“Paniccia arranged again to meet late at night at 10:30 p.m. He drove her to the same commercial parking lot where they had met the previous two times. On this occasion he chose to park near a bank in a more secluded area where trees blocked the front of the parking lot.”
Their third meeting started with conversation, where she told him she didn’t want to do anything further.
“Mr. Paniccia disregarded her wishes and eventually started touching her breasts and her vagina. He kissed her breasts and her neck. He removed her clothing and told her to take off her underwear which she did. She was naked but he remained fully dressed,” said the judge.
“Mr. Paniccia digitally penetrated the complainant’s vagina. He performed oral sex on her. At one point he moved her hand to his underwear near his genital region, but she moved it back. While this was going on Mr. Paniccia told the complainant to keep watch so that nobody sees them. He changed parking locations for the same reason.”
The teen was upset, said the decision. “She did not want to engage in any sexual activity with Mr. Paniccia and she told him that at the outset.”
Paniccia dropped the teen off near her home.
“She told Mr. Paniccia via text that she was disgusted with what had happened and she didn’t want to meet him in his car again. He replied that they should meet in his car because it was ‘so much fun.’ In response to that message, she replied that the Vice Principal would probably find out about what he was doing. Mr. Paniccia told her not to tell anyone because it would ruin his life. She felt he wasn’t listening to her and continued to make everything about himself. He suggested they ‘start over’ but she refused.”
Paniccia sent her several more messages, but she didn’t respond.
“A few weeks after he was told the Vice Principal would likely find out about their meetings. Mr. Paniccia chose to leave the school.”
At the time, he was working for the York Catholic District School Board.
“This community rightly demands that their children are safe from sexual exploitation while attending school,” Kenkel said.
“Unfortunately, there is a continued need in York Region for punitive sentences emphasizing denunciation and general deterrence for teachers and others in a position of trust who choose to sexually abuse students.”
The Crown recommended Paniccia get four years in prison. His lawyer argued for a conditional sentence of two years, less a day.
The court heard the “victim was a troubled teen who suffered from anxiety. She confided in the school Vice Principal who became like a mother to her. The Vice Principal introduced her to Mr. Paniccia. When the Vice Principal broke her leg and was off work, the victim started speaking with Mr. Paniccia.”
At that time, the teen was skipping classes and Paniccia encouraged her to return, said the decision. “They discussed why she wasn’t attending and she shared with him some of the issues she was having.”
For the first month, Paniccia kept the relationship professional. “She disclosed details of her personal situation and he was very supportive. She came to trust him.”
But then Paniccia started telling the teen about his personal problems, said the decision. “He told her he has anxiety like she does. The victim said she felt closer after discussing a shared condition. They talked regularly after school in Mr. Paniccia’s office for about 45 minutes. The victim began to rely upon Mr. Paniccia as a confidant while the Vice Principal was on leave.”
After a winter break, Paniccia helped her with a math project. “He suggested they be in contact after school via Telegram — a messaging application where they could engage in secret chats that would automatically delete at the end of the conversation.”
After a few days of communicating via Telegram, Paniccia, who is married and has three daughters, asked the student to meet in his car in the evening.
“He told her he missed her. By that point she thought he was ‘kind of like a friend’ so she agreed to meet in a plaza near her home.”
Paniccia has a history of mental health issues, including major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety and psychosis, said the decision. “At times he took medication and counselling on an out-patient basis. Eventually in February 2025 after being charged with these offences he was admitted to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) for an in-patient stay. His medication was changed and adjusted to the point where it was more effective.”
His teen victim “was particularly vulnerable,” said the judge. He considered “the grooming and manipulation of the victim,” the “escalating pattern of abuse,” and the “persistence despite repeated directions from the victim to stop,” to be aggravating factors in Paniccia’s case.
The secrecy of their meetings and Paniccia’s “attempt to conceal and prolong” them fit the same category.
“The breach of trust in this case was significant,” Kenkel said. “Teachers are entrusted with the responsibility of educating students, are inextricably linked to the integrity of the school system, exercise influence over students and may be perceived to be wearing their ‘teaching hats’ even when off duty.”
When the teen stopped responding to Paniccia’s messages, “he continued to try to manipulate her, saying his heart was ‘broken,’” said the judge. “He also made suicidal statements to make her feel guilty.”
The victim described her school as, “the one place where I felt stable and secure, especially during a difficult time at home,” said the decision. “That security was taken away by Mr. Paniccia. She no longer trusted the teachers and administrators that she had looked up to for years. She felt and continues to feel a deep sense of shame and isolation.”
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