Chelsea High teacher, coach arrested on charge of sexual contact with student
By: Carol Robinson
SHELBY COUNTY, Alabama - A Chelsea High School teacher and coach was arrested Thursday on a charge he was sexually involved with a student.
Donald "Donnie" Carey Teague, 57, is being held in the Shelby County Jail with bond set at $30,000. He is charged with one count of a school employee having sexual contact with a student under the age of 19.
Teague teaches 10th grade Social Studies at the high school, and also has administrative coaching responsibilities for girls' volleyball and basketball, according to school officials. He has no prior arrests.
Shelby County sheriff's officials said the alleged incident was reported in March to a school resource officer assigned to the high school. Deputies launched an investigation and, on May 13, a Shelby County grand jury indicted Teague
The victim was a student at the high school, officials said. Shelby County Schools' spokeswoman Cindy Warner released the following statement after Teague's arrest:
"The Shelby County Schools District always takes these types of situations seriously. The school district took immediate action when these allegations were brought to our attention and began a thorough investigation. Because the investigation is still ongoing, we are not at liberty to discuss the case. However, we are cooperating with the Sheriff's Department in this investigation."
Several teachers in Shelby County have faced similar charges in recent years. In October, former Chelsea High School Social Studies teacher John Martin Noles, 36, pleaded guilty to being a school employee who had sexual contact with a student. His plea included a suspended jail sentence.
Arrest records said Noles sent text messages with "sexual contact and pictures of his penis" to a student who was younger than 19 years old between August 2012 and May 2013. As part of his plea agreement, he had to surrender his teacher's certification immediately and register as a sexual offender. Noles had been an employee of the Shelby County Board of Education for about eight years and had taught in at least two schools, including Thompson High School in Alabaster.
In December 2013, a former Spain Park High School teacher was sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to having sex with a student under the age of 19. Stephanie Suggs Millard, 34, of north Shelby County, was sentenced by Shelby County Circuit Court Judge Dan Reeves to 10 years in prison. But the judge suspended the sentence and placed her on probation for five years.
Also in December, a former assistant principal at Pelham High School was arrested on charges she had sex with a male student. Catherine Michelle Bell, 33, is charged with several counts of "School Employee Engaging in a Sex Act or Deviant Sexual Intercourse with a Student Under the Age of 19 years. The Alabaster woman is awaiting trial.
In 2012, a 38-year-old Oak Mountain Middle School teacher arrested on sexual abuse charges. Jeffrey Scott Atkins of Alabaster was charged after authorities determined "that communication between the teacher and the student using phone texts and social media outlets was sexual in nature."
Atkins was a teacher and band director at Oak Mountain Middle. H was charged with three counts sexual abuse charges and one count of enticing a child to enter a vehicle, house, etc., for immoral purposes. He also was charged with one count of a school employee having sexual contact with a student under the age of 19 and one count of electronic solicitation of a child.
Atkins was later indicted on three counts of first-degree sexual abuse, enticing a child, electronic solicitation of a child, school employee having sexual contact with a student under the age of 19, distributing pornography to a minor and violation of the school employee sex act. He is set to go to trial in June.
