Brandon Lane McCullough, a 31-year-old teacher from Missouri, has been charged after posing as a 15-year-old teenage boy to blackmail a 14-year-old girl into sending him nude photographs. McCullough would later go on to pose as another 17-year-old boy while blackmailing the teen girl.
McCullough was arrested and charged with sexually exploiting a minor.
The teacher would later tell authorities that he was unaware of how many times he had approached minors because he had done it so regularly.
From the Associated Press:
Prosecutors allege McCullough posed as a 15-year-old boy when he began chatting via Kik with the girl in May 2019. He is accused of threatening to send sexually explicit images to the girl’s family and friends, demanding additional images and videos. On Thursday, law enforcement officers executing a search warrant at McCullough’s home seized an external hard drive containing dozens of Kik chats as well as images and videos that were self-produced by child victims.
Over the course of the past year alone, a handful of teachers have been arrested on similar charges, including 25-year-old substitute teacher Alexis Mercedes Boberg in Baltimore, Beulah High School teacher Kelsie Schmidt in North Dakota, Rancocas Valley Regional High School teacher Alexandra Reiner in New Jersey, and 50-year-old Florida substitute teacher Angela Jean Stanton in Florida. Additionally, Texas teachers Meredith Null and Edna Longoria were arrested on similar charges.
As for why the number of these incidents has seemingly increased, studies suggest that smartphones are the primary reason for the spike in illicit relationships, as it allows teachers to communicate with the minors without supervision.
According to a report from the Texas Education Association, smartphones make easy for teachers to privately text and talk with students and also make it possible for teachers and students to share explicit images.
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