An Indiana teacher allegedly decided to celebrate a student's birthday in highly inappropriate fashion. The now-suspended high school teacher is accused of taking some of his students to a local strip club to celebrate the occasion.
The 31-year-old is also suspected of serving the students beer and hard liquor whenever they came over to "hang out" at his home.
The chemistry teacher, Travis Lechien, has been teaching for the Hanover Community school district in northwest Indiana for a decade and has been on paid suspension since mid-September.
School authorities were warned by another teacher about Lechien's habit of hanging out with his students outside of school and had also been hearing rumors circulating among students at Hanover Central High School about possibly inappropriate behavior.
According to an affidavit, several of the students say they were pulled over by police officers on their drive back from the strip club with Lechien.
While one of the students did apparently tell officers that Lechien was their teacher, there is no evidence that Lechien was charged during that traffic stop.
Lechien was driving the car and had been pulled over for speeding.
All of the students are age 18 or younger and many have known the teacher since middle school. Lechien is now facing three counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Each charge could carry a penalty of up to one year in prison. His attorney says he plans to enter a plea of not guilty on the charges when he appears at a hearing in November.
