A High Schooler Stole Nude Photos of His Teacher and the School Reacted in the Worst Way Possible
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Leigh Anne Arthur, a high school teacher at Union County High School in South Carolina, was reportedly pressured to resign after a student stole nude photos off her phone and shared them with fellow classmates.
WYFF4 - wyff4.com
Arthur told local NBC affiliate WYFF4 that a male student took her phone off her desk while she was briefly on hall patrol duty. Because the phone didn't have a pass code, the student discovered private photos that Arthur had taken for her husband for Valentine's Day. The student subsequently took a picture of the images with his own device and shared them on social media, according to reports.
"He had to hit my apps button and to open up all my apps and then open my gallery," she told the local news station. "He knows right and wrong. He had the ultimate decision to take pictures of my pictures, and he had the ultimate decision to send them out."
WYFF4 - wyff4.com
Arthur told BuzzFeed News that the school’s principal advised her to “lay low” after the incident. The next day, she got word that the district superintendent, David Eubanks, had called for her resignation. She resigned last week but tried to retract it the following day, stating "teachers can be bullied in certain situations" and that she was not in the right mindset when she left her job.
Arthur is claiming the school district is holding her accountable for the incident because she made her phone accessible to students.
"[Eubanks] told me it was because I had inappropriate material on my phone and that I had made it easily accessible to students,” Arthur said.
Eubanks told BuzzFeed News in a statement that Arthur was not properly supervising her class when the photos were stolen.
"Evidence and statements indicate that the teacher was not where she should have been at the time the incident occurred," Eubanks said. "As a result, a student accessed inappropriate material on her phone, sent it to others, and as a result also may also be severely punished by law enforcement as well as the school district."
The student who stole her images, meanwhile, hasn't received any disciplinary action at school, because Union City Police are investigating the incident. Arthur told WYFF4 that she forgives the student because all teens "make stupid decisions," and even though there's a petition with thousands of signatures aiming to get her back on staff, she isn't sure she wants to return.
"There's no clothing big enough to make you feel protected [after an incident like that]," she told WYFF4.
She is also standing by the decision to have the photos on her phone.
"I stand by what I did," she told BuzzFeed News. "It’s OK to be involved in a passionate relationship with your husband.”
Many commenters have sided with Arthur and agreed that the student was in the wrong, not her:
BuzzFeed News - buzzfeed.com
BuzzFeed News - buzzfeed.com
BuzzFeed News - buzzfeed.com
