DEL.ICIO.USUpdated: 6:36 p.m. January 23, 2009
Teacher admits sending student naked pictures
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Friday, January 23, 2009
A former Harrison High School English teacher arrested earlier this month on computer pornography charges admitted to school officials that he gave a 15-year-old female student a cellphone in a brown envelope last fall.
Then, Christopher Michael Nicklis began sending the teenager sexual text messages and naked pictures of himself over that phone.
Nicklis, 36, also admitted to telling the student he wanted to have sex with her, according to a Cobb County school district investigative file obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution through an Open Records request.
On Jan. 6, the girl’s mother went to administrators at Harrison to report that Nicklis had given the student a phone without her parents’ knowledge. The parent apparently discovered the cellphone during the holiday break and called a cellphone provider to determine the phone’s owner.
The following morning, school system officials questioned Nicklis about the allegations, and the teacher submitted his written resignation, in lieu of termination. Nicklis had the option of requesting a formal hearing in front of the school board, but declined.
“I am an idiot,” Nicklis told school officials. “I realized how ridiculous I was.”
The same day, Nicklis was arrested by Cobb police. He was later released on a $15,000 bond. As a condition of his release, Nicklis is prohibited from contacting the student.
In addition to the phone, Nicklis admitted he gave the student an iPod, an iTunes gift card and a DVD movie. He also said he asked a school counselor repeatedly to place the girl in his second period journalism class.
The Cobb school district filed a complaint about Nicklis with the Georgia Professional Standards Commission on Wednesday.
Nicklis served as yearbook adviser and journalism instructor at Harrison, where he was in his third year teaching. He previously taught at Lassiter High School.
Services »
