We so often hear about older mentaking advantage of their position of power to abuse younger women, but it can happen the other way around too – as this case dominating American headlines shows.
Ellen Niemiec, 29, a teacher at Cross High school in Summerville, South Carolina, is in court facing charges of having slept with three of her students on the same night at a wild house party.
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The married mum-of-three allegedly groomed the students by talking about sex with them, before sleeping with each of them. 'It started off with kind of sexual talk and it ended up dirty talk and then it ended up texting pictures and it's our understanding that this teacher had, would have sexual talks with her class on numerous occasions,' said the alleged victims' attorney, Mike Bosnak. 'And it escalated from that into, you know, actual physical, the physical part of this.'
She was sacked from her job by the school, but was offered $21,092 (£12,512) bail by a Berkeley County magistrate on the condition that she stay out of the school and not get in contact with any of its students. Nonetheless, she's faced serious criticism in court. 'She was entrusted with educating and keeping her students safe. That's the trust she violated. The Cross community is a very tight-knit, small community. In small communities the school is the centre of the community. When a teacher violates her students' trust, she essentially violates the whole community's trust,' said Brian Fenton, Berkeley County Detective.
The case continues.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.