COVINGTON, Ky. – On Thursday in Kenton County Court, former Dayton High School teacher Nicole Howell took the stand in her own defense. She said she did not have sexual relations with a 16-year-old male student.
"At any time Nicole – any day, any night and day of the week, any weekend – did you ever have sex of any type with [student's name]?," Attorney Eric Deters asked.
"No," Howell replied.
Howell is facing a first degree sexual abuse charge for multiple alleged intimate incidents with the student.
She says she did text back and forth with many students including the 16-year-old and that the boy would text her sexual questions.
"If he was to say, ‘I want to do this,’ I would be like, ‘Ha, ha – that’s funny’ or ‘Yeah, right’ or ‘You wish!,’ or maybe ‘in your wildest dreams,’ or ‘even like I did to you last night, ‘ ‘maybe when you hit college, ha,ha.’ It was always a joke," Howell said.
Howell said the text messaging was not against the school's teachers' manual and that it was not uncommon for her to hear sexual comments from students.
