Mendham High teacher charged with having sexual relationship with 18-year-old student

Ben Horowitz

A 32-year-old teacher at West Morris Mendham High School was charged Tuesday with having a sexual relationship with an 18-year-old student.

Nicole McDonough of Mount Olive was arrested Tuesday on a single, second-degree charge of official misconduct, according to a joint statement issued by Morris County Prosecutor Fredric Knapp and Mendham Borough Police Chief Pasquale Libertino.

The acts in question allegedly occurred in May and June of 2014.

The statement did not identify the sex of the student or give any more details of what occurred.

It said only that “Law enforcement received information that … McDonough engaged in a sexual relationship with an 18-year-old student while she was employed as a teacher at West Morris Mendham High School.”

McDonough is listed at the school’s website as an English teacher and a current member of the faculty at Mendham High.

McDonough holds a bachelor’s degree in English Literature from the College of St. Elizabeth in Morris Township, according to the website. She teaches honors and International Baccalaureate-level English courses at the high school

On the website, McDonough says she is in her seventh year as a teacher, all in the West Morris Regional High School District. She says she taught at West Morris Central High from 2007 to 2011 and left before returning to the district in April 2013 to teach at West Morris Mendham.

School officials were unavailable to comment on McDonough’s status at the school. The district is on its holiday break this week.

McDonough’s arrest followed an investigation conducted by the Morris County Prosecutor’s sex crimes/child endangerment unit and the Mendham Borough Police Department, Knapp said.

Source: nj