A Georgia high school teacher previously accused of having sex with a student in a classroom closet is now also alleged to have pressured a female student to watch the movie "Fifty Shades of Grey" as part of a pattern of sexual misconduct detailed in new court documents.
Investigators say 25-year-old biology teacher Maris Nichols first came under scrutiny after a student reported she had sexual intercourse with him twice in late April and early May, once inside a closet at Alexander High School in Douglasville and again in a vehicle parked in a neighborhood driveway.
She was arrested on May 8 and charged with two counts of sexual assault by a person with supervisory or disciplinary authority, then released on bond after a judge set bail at $40,000, according to People.
As the investigation widened, additional warrants outlined accusations involving several other teenagers, raising the total number of alleged victims to at least six.
Those filings describe alleged grooming behavior, including explicit messages, sharing sexual images and videos, and in some instances physical contact with students, according to summaries aired by local TV reporters and referenced in Fox News and other outlets.
One warrant reviewed by local journalists alleges Nichols sent nude photos and sexually explicit videos of herself to minors, including footage of her engaged in sexual activity on a live video call with at least two teens under 16.
The same set of documents says she described specific sex acts she wanted boys to perform, and encouraged a female student to watch the "Fifty Shades of Grey" films before engaging in sexual conversations with her, the New York Post reported.
Nichols was employed as a science teacher at Alexander High, about 20 miles west of Atlanta, when the alleged conduct occurred, but her name and photo have since been removed from the school's and district's online listings.
Douglas County school officials have said they are cooperating with law enforcement and that Nichols is no longer in the classroom while the criminal case proceeds.
Prosecutors have not yet publicly detailed every charge in a single filing, but local outlets report Nichols now faces a slate of felonies that includes sexual assault and child molestation counts tied to multiple students.
A future court date has not been widely publicized, and available reports do not indicate whether she has entered a formal plea in response to the allegations, according to Fox News.
