Leominster Teacher Resigns After Accidentally Showing Nude Photos In Class
LEOMINSTER (CBS) - A vo-tech teacher at Leominster High School has resigned after he showed the wrong pictures to his class. It happened at the school's Center for Technical Education innovation – or CTE – where students got an eyeful.
"It was a nude picture of a female," says Leominster Police Lt. Michael Goldman.
The naked faux-pas came from the teacher's smartphone – clearly not something that was in the lesson plan. Police say the teacher was trying to show students some pictures of his dog.
But when he plugged his cell phone into a classroom video monitor, two photos of a nude woman popped up instead – apparently sent to him by his brother. The teacher yanked the racy pictures posthaste, but the damage was done. He resigned that very day.
"I think he did the right thing by resigning," says parent Kathie Reynolds, acknowledging he probably would have been fired had he not. Police and school officials will not name the teacher.
In fact, school superintendent Jim Jolicoeur declined to even discuss the case today, dismissing the Halloween incident as "old news." Jolicoeur did, however, tell the Sentinel and Enterprise newspaper that the teacher had used "very, very poor judgment."
Some students we spoke with agreed. "You need to smarter about where you keep your stuff," CTE senior Alex Bourgeois says. "That would seem to be common sense to me. If you're bringing something to school with that stuff on it, you probably shouldn't be a teacher."
But some parents argue that since the nude photos were clearly shown unintentionally, they weren't worthy of a resignation – forced or voluntary. "People ought to just say 'It's an accident' and move on," offers parent Eric Siponmaa. "But nowadays, especially here in Massachusetts, we want to hold someone accountable for everything. There's no such thing as accidents anymore."
Such incidents require school officials to notify police and the Department of Children and Families immediately – with something called a 51A. But apparently, neither happened for days.
Still, detectives say the teacher did nothing criminal. "If we believed it was anything other than accidental we would have charged him," says Lt. Goldman. "But we believe it was an accident."
So, no charges. Just an ex-teacher – and a class that students will remember.
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