Teacher ‘punished’ with paid vacation over misconduct with teen girls

A Snohomish County teacher is being rewarded with extra paid vacation after an investigation found evidence of his misconduct with students. This is the second time in his career that he was accused of, and found guilty of misconduct. But his “punishment” is a two week suspension that is not only tacked on to the end of his summer vacation, it’s also paid.

That’s not a punishment; that’s a bonus.

The teacher is Bill Nicolay and he teaches at Snohomish High School. The Herald reports that the district spent over $23,000 in a months-long investigation by a Bellevue attorney into allegations that Nicolay had inappropriate relationships with two teen girls during the past two school years.

The Herald reports that Nicolay would either call or email a teen girl, often late at night, even though her dad told the teacher repeatedly to stop contacting his kid. In fact, he sent over 1,500 texts to the girl.

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“What he does is he befriends these girls and tells them personal things,” the father told the Herald. “He treats these kids like adults, and you know how kids are, they eat that up.”

The Herald goes on to report:

Nicolay calls the girl’s ex-boyfriend, also one of his students, manipulative, irritating, abrasive, deceptive, sociopathic and insensitive in messages. He said he often wanted to slap the boy.

In one 3:33 a.m. email, Nicolay describes his first romantic relationship and helps the girl imagine her ideal boyfriend.

Nicolay suggested the girl meet him for some conversations privately and asked her to delete messages so he wouldn’t get in trouble.

The Herald reports another girl said he flirted with her, commented about her looks and would hug her or kiss her on the forehead during private, one-on-one sessions with her, making her uncomfortable.

And as a result of this conduct, his punishment is two weeks of paid time off.

That “punishment” is unthinkable. How is this conduct appropriate for a teacher? How is this not fireable? In the very least, it shows him as tremendously lacking judgment. Do you want this kid in front of your teenage daughters?

And this is all made worse by the fact that this isn’t even the first time he’s been in trouble for this kind of behavior.

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In 2005, he got suspended &#8212 that time, without pay &#8212 for sleeping in a tent with a 17-year-old girl during a three-night backpacking trip they took by themselves, according to the Herald. They also would hang out alone, and had long, late night phone calls.

At the time, the behavior was called “unconscionable.” Remarkably, his punishment was downgraded to a “reprimand”:

After that incident, the state superintendent ordered a two-year suspension of Nicolay’s teaching license. He appealed the decision and it was lowered to a reprimand.

Yet this teacher is still being paid (with our tax dollars, no less) to teach. This shows a total lack of accountability. The Jason Rantz Show will try to bring you more answers tonight at 7 p.m.