A teacher propositioning a student is not a joke. It is a serious crime.
So Londonderry High School administrators deserve credit for reacting swiftly when they learned that a 10th-grade English teacher had allegedly e-mailed four nude photos of herself to a 15-year-old student, sent him explicit text messages and kissed him twice in a classroom.
Within an hour of learning of the sexual images last Wednesday, the first day after power had been restored to the school after February vacation, administrators placed Melinda Dennehy, 41, of Hampstead, on administrative leave and contacted police. They also removed her name from the school's Web site.
Dennehy turned herself in to police on Friday, and faces a single count of felony indecent exposure. Conviction on the charge could lead to seven years in prison and a $4,000 fine. She was released on $10,000 personal recognizance bail, and is to be arraigned in Derry District Court March 23.
According to a police affidavit, she had started sending nude pictures to the student two months ago and had sent him regular text messages, in which she sometimes said she wanted to perform oral sex on him.
The courts will decide Dennehy's guilt or innocence. But in the interim, the school did the right thing by responding immediately, separating an alleged sexual predator from students and turning the matter over to police.
