South Carolina Teacher Forced To Resign After Student Steals Her Phone, Shares Her Nude Photos With Friends

A South Carolina teacher was forced to resign after her phone was stolen by a student and nude photos shared with classmates. The teacher, Leigh Anne Arthur, says that the student stole the phone and then shared nude photos she had taken for her husband with other students. The teacher claims that instead of being reprimanded for taking the teacher’s property and sharing her intimate photos, the student faced no repercussions for his actions while she was forced to resign by administration over the ordeal.

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The Daily Mail reports that South Carolina teacher Leigh Anne Arthur was forced to resign from her position as a mechatronics teacher at Union County Career and Technology Center after nude photos of the teacher circulated through the school. However, it wasn’t the teacher who sent the photos. Arthur claims that while she was patrolling the school halls, a student entered her classroom and stole her phone. After stealing the phone, the student proceeded to look through the teacher’s personal photos and discovered a series of nude photographs that the teacher had taken with her phone as a gift for her husband on Valentine’s Day. The student then took the nude photos and text messaged them to classmates.

Teacher forced to resign after student allegedly steals nude photos from her phone https://t.co/3SP6g6Xq4X pic.twitter.com/weU4EoFS1y

— CNET (@CNET) March 1, 2016

After messaging the intimate photos to other students, the phone thief then allegedly approached Arthur and told her that her “day of reckoning is coming.” At the time, Arthur did not know what the student was talking about but shortly after the statement, the teacher discovered that the photos had been sent. After administrators were informed of the mishap, they informed Arthur that she would need to resign for face termination. The former Union County Career and Technology Center teacher opted to resign over a forced termination.

However, now the teacher is speaking out against her termination noting that she did not send the photos, they were stolen. She claims that the student was never disciplined for stealing the teacher’s phone or for sharing her private photos, instead, she claims she was the only who suffered any consequences from the humiliating ordeal. She has filed a complaint with the Union Public Safety Department, noting that she should not be held liable for the student’s actions as he was old enough to know right from wrong.

“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. He had to hit my apps button and to open up all my apps and then open my gallery.”

Though she is upset over losing her job, Arthur says she holds no ill-will towards the student but hopes the school will do the right thing by allowing her back to the classroom. At least three of Mrs. Arthur’s students agree and have filed a petition to get the snubbed teacher back into the classroom.

Teacher resigns after student stole her phone and shared nude photos https://t.co/zYUKtOZPpU via @MailOnline

— Irene Ochoa (@missyjoblu2) March 1, 2016

“After being escorted off of school property, we (the students) are left to believe that she has been forced to, or given little choice but to resign. With that being said, the student(s) responsible have not received any sort of punishment. The circumstances in which Mrs. Arthur was let go is unacceptable, and must be corrected. Mrs. Arthur has not only shown tremendous dedication to her students, but also the mechatronics program itself, often reaching out to local businesses and colleges to get materials that would not normally be available for class.”

So far, the petition has garnered over 250 signatures with many hoping the school will reconsider the forced resignation of the beloved teacher. What do you think about the school’s response to the nude photo incident? Should the teacher be held liable for the incident considering a student stole her phone without permission? Should the student face consequences for stealing the phone and distributing the nude photographs of the teacher?

[Image via Shutterstock]