Teacher sues district after student spread nude photos
In this undated image made from video, teacher Leigh Anne Arthur speaks to a reporter in Union County, S.C. (WYFF News-4 via AP)
COLUMBIA, S.C. » A South Carolina teacher who resigned after a student spread nude pictures of her through text messages and social media sued her former employer today, saying she wants her dignity back after being forced to quit.
Attorneys for Leigh Anne Arthur sued the Union County school district in northwestern South Carolina for breach of contract and slander. She is seeking unspecified damages for her lost income, lost opportunities and harm to her reputation.
Arthur told The Associated Press she’s been struggling since a student went through her cellphone while she was on hall duty between classes and found photos taken as a Valentine’s Day gift to her husband. A 16-year-old student was charged earlier this month with a computer crime and voyeurism.
That student no longer attends Union County High School, district officials said today.
According to the lawsuit, the student found four “provocative pictures” that Arthur took of herself and used a separate phone to take photos of them and disseminate. It says an officer escorted Arthur off school grounds after district officials told her to submit her resignation. If she didn’t, the lawsuit says, officials told her she would lose her job anyway and possibly her ability to teach anywhere in South Carolina.
“I have lost friends. My co-workers are a little afraid to speak to me,” said Arthur, who’s taught in the district since 2003. “It has taken a serious toll on me emotionally to power through this, but I’m back and ready for the next phase and want to make it right.”
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She said the mechatronics course she taught at the high school’s vocational center has been temporarily shut down. The program is a blend of mechanical, electrical and computer engineering.
“I get really emotional when I think of the students in this program for the right reason,” she said. “This is not my fault or the students’ fault.”
Arthur is not seeking her job back. She said she’s not sure how many students and parents saw the photos.
Superintendent David Eubanks declined to further comment today on “pending legal action.”
He referred to earlier statements that Arthur was not where she was supposed to be when her phone was accessed a month ago. He has also said that evidence indicates Arthur routinely left her cellphone on her desk for students to use, and no code blocked access.
Arthur said it was a mistake to leave the phone on her desk.
“I’m not perfect. I’m not a superwoman. I’m just a plain Jane person,” she said.
She said she’s humbled by the online petition that urges district officials to give Arthur her job back. As of today, there were 17,350 signatures on the petition saying Arthur was the victim of a “blatant attack of her privacy.”
But Arthur said she has no immediate plans to return to teaching. She said she enjoys CrossFit training and would like to open a gym.
11 responses to “Teacher sues district after student spread nude photos”
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Yes, she was treated rather shabbily by the school district but how do you put a price on your personal dignity, a quality which comes from within? Monetary compensation can bring some happiness it’s true, but won’t restore things to the way they were. And if she indeed lost friends over the incident, maybe they weren’t such good friends after all.
agree
Lady, no amount of money from the school will replace your dignity. And, why is it the school’s problem? The teacher brought her naked pictures to the school and got caught. Wouldn’t it fall under the rule of “no pornography on campus?” She created the problem when she took the pictures, and left them on her phone after using them for whatever purpose. It’s all on her.
I’ve never heard of such a “rule” (though there are codes of conduct for school personnel) in any school system in the US. Conduct issues come under a different umbrella and there is a reasonable expectation of privacy regarding personal possessions. No, the issue here (“dignity” apart and difficult to evaluate) is the denial of due process protection in the wrongful pressure on the employee to resign or face termination. It sounds to me, like small school districts such as this one are really lacking in their training and certification of administrators. The district superintendents are often not educators at all. I would imagine that the district will settle and possibly terminate an administrator or two.
(Those who have been following this case should recall I said that a civil action for wrongful termination would probably soon follow. By the way, for those who keep braying “Unions, unions!” this action has nothing to do with unions or lack of same. S.C., like most of the rest of the US has union representation for teachers that is extremely weak hand has virtually no weight in state politics. This case is about the allegation of violation of constitutional due process rights.)
Don’t put pics on your cellphone…
Yeah, blame the victim. Stay classy.
not sure. she regularly allowed students access to her phone, without password protection to her private files.
if this were a male teacher would he have been charged with promoting pornography to children?
Good for her! She should never have been fired. This is no different than the kid going thru her wallet and stealing her credit card. Would you say “She shouldn’t have brought her credit card to school”? It’s her own business. That horrible kid needs to be prosecuted as well.
Her negligence of leaving her private telephone with risque pictures in it contributed to distribution of the nude pictures. Dismissal/resignation should be nullified and she be allowed to return to work. If she chooses not return, that’s her prerogative. Much hallaboo over nothing. This kind situations was bound to happen with individuals taking “selfies”.
This story being a trending story says it all. HSA almost always leaves out the location of the story, thinking that people will click on it. I didn’t think at all that this was a Hawaii story. It would have been front page news long ago. Goes to show much more goes on in the mainland. Lucky we live Hawaii, although it’s expensive and a lot of homeless mingle around LOL.