NEWS Teacher accused of kissing boy in class, sending nudes gets fired

Chelsea Hahn

A high school teacher in New Jersey accused of kissing a 17-year-old boy in her classroom — and sending him nude photos and racy text messages — is officially out of a job.

Chelsea Hahn, 25, was fired by the Ewing Board of Education, effective June 30, following her arrest last month on three counts of endangering the welfare of a child through sexual contact as she worked as an English teacher at Ewing High School, the Trentonian reports.

Police said Hahn, of Ewing, “impaired or debauched the morals” of the teen student by using her phone to text him raunchy messages and nude photos of herself, as well as asking him to have sex. Hahn was later suspended by district officials from her $44,000 post and barred from returning to school property.

“The district took such action upon receiving information from the Ewing Township Police and Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office and also as a result of notification from the New Jersey Department of Education that Ms. Hahn was arrested and facing charges for a disqualifying crime or offense,” district officials said in response to the newspaper’s open-records request.


In a statement released last month, district officials said they were “deeply saddened” by Hahn’s arrest.

“We have the highest expectations for professional behavior on the part of our staff and the well-being of our students is our foremost concern,” Schools Superintendent Michael Nitti and Ewing High School principal Edward Chmiel said. “Please know that we handled this matter professionally and cooperated fully with relevant law enforcement officials as soon as we became aware of this situation.”

Records reviewed by the newspaper indicate that Hahn had her annual salary raised from $44,000 to $48,400 after receiving a master’s degree in English from The College of New Jersey.

“It just seems more official now,” Hahn tweeted in August 2017 with a picture of a college room key. “Guys … I’m a professor.”

A message seeking comment from Hahn’s attorney, Edward Cridge, was not immediately returned early Thursday. If convicted, she faces up to 10 years in prison.