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Welcome back to Exposed. I am your host, Jim Chapman,
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and today I am back with certainly my most popular
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series I cover on this show, and that is Bad Teachers.
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Shout out to all of you who have messaged me
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on Facebook and said, hey, man, where are the bad
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teachers at Well, I'm bringing you one today. And although
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I have not done one of these in quite a while,
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in the absence of that, maybe one of the most
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blatant cases I have come across yet as surfaced. The
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case is really everywhere, So we're going to get right
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into it, and I want you to kind of imagine
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this as you're listening. It's a spring day at Alexander
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High School in Douglasville, Georgia. Students are moving between classes,
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football practices happening on the field, and in a biology classroom,
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a beautiful twenty five year old teacher is doing something
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that would shatter every assumption about who is supposed to
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protect our kids now. According to arrest warrants obtained by
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multiple news outlets, one student later told investigators they saw
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explicit videos on another student's cell phone, videos showing their
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biology teacher, Maris Nichols, engaged in sexual acts with students,
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not rumors, not whispers videos, and that was just the
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beginning of what authorities say they uncovered. Now today I'm
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going to deep dive into one of the most disturbing
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cases of educator misconduct to hit Georgia in recent memory.
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You've got a young tea, a position of trust, multiple students,
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and a digital trail that investigators say led right to
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this chick's door. This is a story about how someone
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in a position of authority crossed every line, not only
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in classrooms, but in cars and through the phones that
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sat in students' pockets. It's about the investigation that followed,
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the charges that piled up, and the questions that remained
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for the community of Douglasville and for every parent who
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sends their child to school every morning. Now, by the
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end of this episode, you're going to know the timeline,
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the allegations that I'm going to quote straight from the warrants,
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the arrest, the bond drama, and what this case reveals
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about the systems meant to keep these students safe. It's
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why do bad teachers. We're going to examine it all
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the facts, the evidence, and what is really the human
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costs behind every charge. But before we go into the classroom,
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before we get to the arrest and the thirteen felony
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counts that have now actually increased, I'm going to take
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you back. I'm going to get you to understand a
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little bit about who Maris Nichols was before any of
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this came to light, because in cases like this, the
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questions that everyone asked me are the same, How does
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something like this ever happen? And that's exactly where I'm
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going to start. So, Maris Nichols was twenty five years
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old when this first arrest warrant was issued. This was
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in May of twenty twenty six. She was a biology
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teacher and a member, believe it or not, of the
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football staff at Alexander High School. Now, this school is
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in what's known as Douglas County, which is just west
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of Atlanta, and by all outward appearances, Maris was a
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young educator building a career working with teenagers. She was mayored,
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she had a young child of her own, and on paper,
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she fit the profile of the dedicated teacher that many
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communities would hope to hire. But according to Douglas County
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authorities and the warrants that have now been made public.
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Behind that professional image was a pattern of behavior that
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would eventually bring her face to face with the criminal
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justice system, not once, but twice in the span of
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just two weeks. So on May eighth of twenty twenty six,
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Nichols gets arrested and she's charged with two counts of
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improper sexual contact by a person with supervisory or disciplinary authority.
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She bonded out that same day. Then on May twenty first,
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she was arrested again, this time facing a much longer
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list of charges that brought the felonies alone to thirteen felonies. Now.
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Those charges included two counts of child molestation, four counts
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of improper sexual contact by an employee, four counts of
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grooming a minor for sexual offenses, one kind of tampering
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with evidence in the original sexual assault related charges. Now.
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At this point, investigators said at least six teenagers were
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allegedly victimized, four of them identified as students at Alexander
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High School, and these incidents span a short but intense
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period of the spring of twenty twenty six. The warrants
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detail specific locations a school closet inside a classroom on
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April twenty third of this year, a parked car in
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a residential driveway just nine days later, and on going
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communication through Snapchat that investigators believe was used to send
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explicit photos and videos. And there are also references in
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the warrants to an alleged OnlyFans account and claims that
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are still under investigation that some students may have found
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that only fans account and attempted to use that information
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against her. Now, prosecutors later alleged Nichols violated her bond conditions.
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Dozens of Times reports site as many as eighty five
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violations while under electronic monitoring or strict orders that included
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no internet and no social media access. Now, this is
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a heavy case. It's disturbing, and I want to be
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clear from the start and get the legal ease out
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of the way. These are allegations. Maris Nichols has not
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been convicted of any crime as of the time we
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are recording this, and in this country you're presumed innocent
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until proven guilty in a court of law. But those warrants,
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those charges, the digital evidence investigators collected, and the statements
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from authorities paint a picture that demands a full deep dive,
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and that's what we're going to do here, and I'm
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going to walk you through this story chronologically, from what
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we know about our early life and path into education,
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through her time at Alexander High School, into the alleged
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crimes themselves, the investigations all of that. We're going to
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look at the evidence that investigators gathered, and we are
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going to know all the details. We're also going to
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talk about the broader issue that this case represents, because,
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as you know from listening to nearly one hundred episodes
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that I've done so far in the Bad Teacher Series, unfortunately,
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Maris Nichols is not the first teacher to face these
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kinds of allegation, and she won't be the last. The
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Bad Teacher Series exists to examine these cases. Honestly, I
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don't do them for shock value, but I want you
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to understand the patterns, the failures, and what can be
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done to protect students moving forward. Now, before I go
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any further, a quick note on the content. The episode
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contains very detailed discs ushion of alleged sexual misconduct involving minors.
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It's graphic in nature, y'all, because it's real life, these
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real people, and to leave out the graphic details, in
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my view, not only waters down the seriousness of the crimes,
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but it also creates a massive injustice to the victims
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because you're minimizing the crimes. I have people from time
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to time and they'll put ugly reviews on Apple Podcasts
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or Spotify or something, and they'll say, Oh, he's too graphic,
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he gives too much of the details. We don't need.
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We can infer basically, And what I'm telling you is
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that's an injustice to the victims. You're minimizing it when
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you do something like that. People need to know exactly
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what goes on with these sick teachers. So with that,
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listener discretion is strongly advised. And if you're sensitive to
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these topics, I get it you may want to turn
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this one off. And with that, let's get into it.
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And I told you about this school being located in
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Douglas County, Douglasville, Georgia, and it's part of the sprawling
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Atlanta metropolitan arians, the suburban community with a very large
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city around it, but it doesn't have the big city
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hustle of downtown Atlanta. It's close enough that many residents
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can commute to the city for work. It's a place
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with a strong high school sports culture, particularly football, which
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would later play a role in nichols professional life. And
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growing up in this kind of environment in the early
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two thousands to twenty tens meant a typical suburban Georgia
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childhood for many kids, public schools, use sports leagues, church
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on Sundays for some families, and the steady rhythm of
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the Atlanta suburbs. Now, we don't have confirmed details about
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nickel specific family situation, parents, occupations, exact childhood home life,
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which I like to get into that stuff when I
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have it, but we can look at a broader picture
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of what shaped young people in that area during those years.
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Many families in Douglas County they valued education as a
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pathway to stability. Teaching long been seen as a respectable,
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stable profession, especially for someone who enjoys working with young
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people and has an interest in science or sports, like
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Maris did. Now by our high school years, Nichols would
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have been navigating the typical challenges of kids in the
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smartphone era. Social media was already deeply embedded into teen life.
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You got Snapchat, Instagram, and other platforms, and those are
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all common ways in which teenagers would communicate, something that
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would later become central to the allegations against her, but
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at this time it was just a part of her
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growing up. Now what stands out when I look at
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her later career is her involvement with the football program
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at Alexander High School, which to me that kind of
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suggests an early or developing interest in sports, athletics and
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working with student athletes. Many young educators who coach or
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support sports programs often have their own backgrounds in athletics,
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whether it's as a player, as a cheerleader, which is
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likely the way that Maris went, or they're simply fans
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who enjoyed the team environment. It's possible Nichols played sports
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herself in middle or high school and simply gravitated towards
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the energy or the mentorship that comes with being around
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student athletes, but I don't have that information. It's just
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not out there. Now. We also know that she chose
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to teach biology, object that honestly requires a major interest
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in science, lab work and explaining complex topics to teenagers.
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Think about it, When you teach biology, it's not exactly
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the most interesting of courses unless you're really into science.
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When you're teaching that when you're explaining it to teenagers,
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got to make it kind of fun, right. That choice,
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to me points to someone who was comfortable in a
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classroom setting and have patients. They've communicated very well, and
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they knew how to break down difficult material. Now, for
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many young teachers, the decision to enter education would come
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from the desire to make a difference. Of course, my
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co host on Crime Wire Weekly, Kelly Jennings, was a
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teacher for more than twenty years, taught criminal justice at
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the college and the high school level, and she certainly
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has great communication skills. Now, prior to all that, you
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got to go to college, right, and by the time
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Maris reached college age, which I'm estimating to be around
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twenty twenty, she would have been entering a higher education
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system smack dab in the middle of COVID. And it's
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interesting that many students during that period they would take
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classes online. They would deal a lot with isolation, and honestly,
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they would think a lot about the uncertain job markets
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upon graduation. Nobody knew what the hell was going to
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happen with COVID when it first started and reared its
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ugly head. Yet Maris did complete the necessary steps to
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become a certified teacher in Georgia. She here and a degree,
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and that's no easy feat during that time in history,
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so she's obviously smart. Now, Georgia's teacher pipeline moves relatively
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quickly for motivating people. A young person who knows they
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want to teach can often be in their own classroom
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by their early twenties, and Nichols appeared to have followed
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that path pretty successfully. She landed a position teaching biology
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at Alexander High School and was also brought onto the
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football staff, a role that would give her additional contact
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with students outside the traditional classroom setting, which we know
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now was a very bad idea. Think about what that
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looks like on paper, though, a twenty three or twenty
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four year old woman at that time, recently out of college,
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very pretty standing in front of a bunch of high
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school students, many of them close to her own age
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within six to seven years, and she's helping them on
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the football team. Now, in many schools, that kind of young,
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energetic staff member can quickly become popular with the students
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because the students feel like they relate to that teacher
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a little better. They understand the current slang, these twenty
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five year old teachers, the social media trends, the pressures
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the teenagers are facing as they graduate. In that relatability,
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it can be a strength in education, but in the
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wrong hands, with the wrong teacher, it can also blur
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professional boundaries. Now, as much as I've dug into this one,
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I don't have public statements from former classmates or teachers
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or coaches describing Nickels either as a student or a
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young adult. No glowing profiles or warning signs of surface
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in the reporting thus far. So what we have, as
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a young woman who buy all our appearances, was doing
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what thousands of other young educators do every year in Georgia,
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showing up and teaching her subject. And that's the picture
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we can reasonably paint from the limited amount of information.
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We have a suburban upbringing, an interest in science and sports,
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the lettering into teaching and coaching, and a fast track
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entry into a profession at a relatively young age, in
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a position that would place her in direct daily contact
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with hundreds of teenagers. But here's where the story takes
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a darker term because, according to the allegations that would
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later emerge, that professional relationship she was supposed to maintain
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with those students way crossed into something criminal. And let's
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start with the school. Now Alexander High School part of
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the Douglas County School District, located in the western suburbs
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of Atlanta, and it serves several hundred students and, like
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many Georgia high schools, places a strong emphasis on both
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academics and athletics. Football in particular very visible and important
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and boom and an important part of the school's culture.
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Games on Friday Night drew families alumni in a broader community.