Police look into second NHS teacher for getting photos

NEWARK – A Newark High School teacher who reportedly received unsolicited explicit images from a student was put on paid leave earlier this week, but prosecutors have decided no criminal charges will be filed against him.

According to a Newark Division of Police report, the district was made aware of rumors surrounding the teacher March 5. The reporting officer heard rumors about the teacher possibly engaging in a sexual relationship with a student.

Detective Steve Vanoy began investigating the incident and interviewed several students, as well as the teacher involved, according to his written statement.

A school official told Vanoy the teacher was previously looked into for reportedly leaving a note in a female student's book bag and taking two students to lunch in the teacher's vehicle.

The school official also said the teacher was reported for allegedly chest bumping a student multiple times while escorting him to the principal's office.

According to the teacher's personnel file, he received a letter in December 2012 related to that incident directing him to not make inflammatory remarks to students and to not put his hands on a student unless protecting them from imminent harm.

The letter summarized the incident, in which the teacher reportedly told a student to stop acting out by using a word the student then directed back at the teacher. After the teacher went into the hall to talk to the student, the teacher chest bumped the student seven times on the way to the principal's office.

The incident occurred during the first year the teacher was employed in the district. There were no other disciplinary actions in the teacher's file until this week.

As part of the current investigation, the teacher reportedly gave school officials copies of several messages female students had left him, some of which were "sexually explicit, telling (the teacher) to either snap chat them and/or writing comments," Vanoy wrote.

In an interview with a female student, she admitted to leaving the teacher a note with her Snapchat name but did not receive a request for friendship or communications from the teacher on the application, Vanoy wrote.

A second female student who was interviewed admitted to leaving the teacher notes and sending at least one image to the teacher through the Instagram application. The student said she had obtained the teacher's phone while in his classroom and requested to be friends with herself through the app on his phone, Vanoy wrote.

"She made it clear he never asked her to send him a photo and/or communicate ... via social media," Vanoy wrote.

The student said the teacher never sent any photographs in reply and asked her to stop sending the photos.

When Vanoy interviewed the teacher, he told Vanoy he had found "selfies" on his phone in the past after classes, which he would delete. The teacher told Vanoy the female student sent herself the friend request and he received a photograph from her near the end of the 2013-14 school year of the student holding a cat.

"He said he looked at this image, but did not send any type of a reply to her," Vanoy said. "He said within the next day or so, (the female student) ended up sending him 4-5 additional images on Instagram."

Those images included some explicit images of the student, the teacher told Vanoy. The student reportedly asked the teacher whether he enjoyed what he saw in the photographs.

"(He) said he replied to (the student) that he basically could not lie, and informed her he did like what he saw, but quickly told her not to send him any more images and told her not to contact him anymore outside of school," Vanoy wrote.

The teacher acknowledged he should have informed the school district immediately about receiving the images and said the photos had all been deleted from his phone.

The student said in a second interview with Vanoy that she did not at first recall sending the images, but said it was possible.

The teacher was placed on verbal paid leave Monday by Newark City Schools Superintendent Doug Ute for failing to report the communication to a supervisor and responding to the message.

Vanoy took the case to Assistant Licking County Prosecutor Paula Sawyers, but the decision was made not to press charges.

Sawyers said because the teacher did not seek out the contact with the student and reacted responsibly by cutting off the contact, charges would not be sought.

The district is continuing its disciplinary process against the teacher. A predisciplinary hearing took place Thursday.