Twisted Teacher(s) II

[Bigun]

Teacher awaits charges


By KURSTEN PHELPS
kphelps@gctelegram.com
Posted on Friday, January 6, 2006 2:05:24 PM

A Garden City teacher remains in custody this morning at the Finney County Jail, awaiting formal charges after being arrested for an alleged sexual relationship with a 16-year-old Garden City High School student.

Nadine Nunnelee, 40, was arrested Wednesday morning at GCHS' J.D. Adams Hall on five counts of unlawful sexual relations. Police allege she hosted the male student at her home in December.

Unlawful sexual relations, Garden City police Capt. Mike Utz said, is engaging in consensual sexual intercourse, lewd fondling or touching or sodomy with a person who is not married to the offender.

Although 16 is the legal age of consent for sexual relationships in Kansas, state law prohibits school employees from having sex with 16- or 17-year-old students enrolled in their schools.

Nunnelee has not been formally charged, Finney County Attorney John Wheeler said.

Garden City High School Principal James Mireles said he and the school's administration are doing their best "to make sure everyone involved is protected, treated correctly and has due process."

Nunnelee, a school-within-a-school English and algebra teacher, is suspended with pay until police conclude their investigation.

"We are a professional institution, and we try to be careful on how we handle situations like this if they happen," Mireles said. "We're trying to have the safest and best school we can."

According to district records, Nunnelee was hired in July 2004 after completing her master's degree in education at Texas Tech University. She was a first-year teacher when she started with the district in 2004.

Rod Bieker, general counsel for the Kansas Department of Education, said teachers convicted of a serious crime, particularly if it involves the welfare of a child, would have their teaching license revoked.

He said teachers with revoked licenses can re-apply for a new license after at least five years. A teacher convicted of having an inappropriate sexual relationship with a student, however, most likely would be barred from ever regaining a Kansas license, he said.

"Kansas does belong to an interstate reporting system such that if we revoke the license of a person, all the other states will find out," Bieker said. "For us, it's just a red flag for us to go back and check what the circumstances were (on an out-of-state teacher losing his or license). It may be something that would cause us to not issue a license, or it may be something that's not a major problem."

It's not the first time in recent years that a school employee in Garden City has been accused of an inappropriate relationship with a student.

Theresa Padilla, a former Kenneth Henderson Middle School paraprofessional, was sentenced to 36 months of probation in 2004 for aggravated indecent liberties with a child, and 24 months of probation for indecent solicitation of a child.

Padilla admitted in court she had arranged for a then 14-year-old KHMS student to meet her in her car. She also admitted to fondling the boy at school. Her contract with the district was terminated in June 2004.

Former hearing-impaired student teacher Robin Sharp was arrested in 1998 on eight counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child. She admitted to having sexual intercourse with a 14-year-old hearing-impaired student and was sentenced to 64 months of intensely monitored probation.

Sharp worked with students at Edith Scheuerman Elementary School, Abe Hubert Middle School and Charles O. Stones Intermediate Center before being suspended with pay during the investigation. She resigned at the end of the 1997-98 school year.

[lurker]

Yelp, all of em are wimmen. Either the boyz in Garden City aren't taking good care of their Skrewl Marms, or their Skrewl Marms are uglier than a muslim virgin.