COLUMBIA, South Carolina (AP) — A high school teacher says she forgives the teenager who took her cellphone, found a nude picture and shared it on social media, even though she lost her job and was harassed as a result. School authorities still blame the teacher, however, and have yet to discipline any students, pending a police investigation.
Union County School District Superintendent David Eubanks said Thursday that it’s her fault for leaving students unattended during a four-minute break between classes.
Leigh Anne Arthur, 33, told police on Feb. 18 that while she stepped out of her classroom, a 16-year-old boy took her unlocked smartphone from her desk, opened the photos application and found a nude selfie she had taken for her husband as a Valentine’s present.
Then, using his own phone, the boy took a picture of the image and shared it. Soon, multiple students were sharing it on social media, and someone left copies, along with a harassing note, in Arthur’s mailbox.
State police have examined this evidence along with the student’s cellphone, State Law Enforcement Division spokesman Thom Berry said Thursday.
School officials are unsure how many people saw the image. None of the students involved have been suspended or expelled, although criminal charges are likely, Eubanks told The Associated Press Thursday in a phone interview.
“The students are probably going to be charged by law enforcement,” Eubanks said. “When you start transmitting pictures of nude people, on cellphones, it’s probably against the law.”
Arthur told local media that it’s part of her job to monitor the hallway between classes. But Eubanks said some students said she was in an adjoining room at the time, and that’s why her director told her to resign or be fired for failing to supervise her class.
“She has tried to make this out as though it was strictly related to the photos,” Eubanks said. “I could care less what her pictures are on the cellphone.”
Arthur, a 13-year veteran, quit her job teaching mechanical and electrical engineering and computer programming at the school’s vocational center. She did not immediately return messages left Thursday by the AP.
In a local television interview, she said she forgives the student, but believes he should be held responsible.
“We all make stupid decisions when we’re 16,” Arthur told WYFF-TV. Still, “he had the ultimate decision to take pictures of my pictures and he had the ultimate decision to send them out.”
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