Accusations against Kell Teacher

A teacher from Kell High School has been accused of slapping a student’s butt while also touching another student on the arm in an inappropriate manner. While these accusations are lingering, it seems as though it is not the first time this teacher has been accused of inappropriate behavior with his students. His discipline file, which came from the Cobb County School District, showed that there is a lot more that has gone on than actually meets the eye. Several people have chosen to resign because of the allegations that have been made against James Chadwick Brigham. Along with Brigham, the Principal of the school, Trudie Donovan and a counselor, Peggy Jerden, have all chosen to resign from the school last month. This all came from the chief of the human resources department for the school district.

Brigham, who happens to be 37-years-old, was first arrested back in June, the 21^st to be exact. His charges included felony sexual battery along with misdemeanor simple batter. The following day, he was out on bond. Before these charges ever occurred, Brigham was once suspended from work for an entire week because he called one of the student’s boyfriends a name, talked about the size of a penis on someone else, and talked about how a couple of students had been fired from a Dunkin Donuts because they continued to fool around in the back of the store. The suspension took place in January of 2007 and again in 2009 and in the meantime, he did not receive pay while being suspended.

The file showed that Brigham did apologize for all of the comments he made, stating that when he talked about those things, he was acting out of his character and could not explain the reason as to why he said and did what he did. All he gave as an explanation was the fact that he often becomes used to the students, feeling comfortable around them, and forgets that he is supposed to be in the role of a teacher, not a friend of the students. With the most recent accusations, one female student spoke with Jerden on the 17^th of May about Brigham and certain issues she was having with him and how he was telling her she looked good and slapping her on the butt when entering into the class. On a different occasion, Brigham asked to see a student’s phone, looked through her pictures and make sexual references to her appearance and how she looked while wearing a bikini. He also slapped the same student in the face, referring to her as a derogatory word and calling himself a pimp. In the meantime, Brigham claims he is resigning so that he can take on other opportunities instead of working as a teacher.