Memphis teacher accused of sharing nude pictures, videos with student faces new charge, records show
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A suspended middle school teacher was back in court Wednesday morning.
FOX13 reported last month that police say she gave one of her students an iPad with nude photos and videos of herself.
Kelsey Whitmore is charged with aggravated stalking.
After posting bail last month, part of the conditions was not to make contact with the victim directly or indirectly.
According to a police affidavit, she asked the victim if he wanted to live with her after the case was closed.
Whitmore’s attorney, Kevin Massey, says this was her way of being a concerned teacher.
“This is an educator that was extremely concerned about the welfare of one of the students that she’s worked with, and things got blown out of proportion,” Massey says.
Last month, Whitmore was accused of sexual solicitation of a minor.
After she was released from jail, she took to Facebook, saying it’s not true.
In the post that has since been deleted, Whitmore wrote, “The worst part about all of this going on and what I’m being accused of is that I literally have all the evidence in the world to show that it’s not true and could ruin this woman’s entire life for ruining mine…”
“We’re just getting on the case, so there’s not a lot of information, but from what we receive, what we gather, this isn’t some type of case of grooming or sexually harassing a child,” Massey says.
According to an affidavit, the teen’s mother believed Whitmore was grooming her son.
She said the boy spent nights at Whitmore’s house, went to church with her, and got gifts from her, including clothes, a cell phone, and the iPad where the mom found the nude images of Whitmore that led to the teacher’s arrest.
The mother told investigators that she believed that the teacher was “grooming” her son. By police definition, this type of grooming is considered sexual in nature and a way for adults to build a relationship with a child, young person or adult for abuse or manipulation.
On Monday, police arrested Whitmore again.
Investigators say they found texts on another student’s phone where Whitmore asked the student to ask the alleged victim if he wanted to live with her after the case.
Wednesday morning in court, Judge Sheila Renfroe gave Whitmore a stern warning.
“You cannot contact this victim by any means…no verbal communication, no writing, no texting, no smoke signals, nothing through other people. I will revoke your bond and lock you up,” Renfroe said.
“In any case like this, you have to take the welfare of the child into consideration. That’s the utmost importance. So, you know, we have no issues with any of that. The judge was absolutely right in issuing that warning, but we’re looking forward to proving that that just wasn’t the case,” Massey said.
At this time, Whitmore is still on leave.
Court documents identified Whitmore as a teacher but the name of her school was redacted. FOX13 later learned Whitmore taught at Sherwood Middle School. MSCS placed her on leave around the time of her arrest.
