Former Somerset Co. teacher charged for obscene calls

A nine-year Junior ROTC instructor, formerly employed with Somerset County Public Schools, is facing charges of obscene telephone calls to a student.

The alleged incident involves James McGee, 51, and a 16-year-old female student who reportedly attended the ROTC class under McGee’s instruction.

Court documents reveal that McGee communicated through messages from a cell phone application called “SnapChat”, which allows users to send pictures and videos to recipients. After its 1 to 10 second life-span, the pictures and/or videos are expected to vanish.

According to the victim, the messages were friendly at first but soon became sexual in nature. She told officials that the messages contained sexual content, which apparently included McGee informing her that he wanted to “bend her over his desk”, requesting a nude photo, asking her about masturbation and her “thoughts on pornography”.

Authorities also interviewed a student witness. The witness, a friend of the victim, reportedly attends Washington High School. She started that she “observed the messages” that McGee was allegedly sending through SnapChat. According to court documents, the witness also provided a text message conversation between herself and McGee, concerning the SnapChat messages.

Records provided by SnapChat indicate that McGee’s account was created on May 28, 2014.

During the investigation, the Board Of Education, the victim and witness all reportedly provided the same cell phone number for McGee.

According to Leo Lawson, a supervisor of Public Relations at Somerset County Schools, McGee resigned from his position in April. When asked whether this was a forced resignation, Lawson did not choose to comment.

McGee is expected to appear for a preliminary hearing on June 19.