Former Broadneck Teacher Given Probation For Displaying Obscene Material

Former Broadneck High School teacher Erin Thorne was given probation by a judge last week after she pleaded guilty to displaying obscene material to a minor.

Thorne, 28, of Arnold, was given probation in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court on Wednesday, and ordered to stay away from a graduate of Broadneck, who at the time of the incident was a minor, according to online court records. The issuance of probation spares Thorne a conviction on her record.

The Capital Gazette reported that Thorne's attorney Peter O'Neill said his client's dream as a child was to be a teacher at Broadneck, where she graduated from in 2006. At Broadneck, she was an English teacher and basketball coach. She was placed on leave in November 2012 at the start of the investigation into the incident.

Thorne turned herself in to authorities in March. According to county police, when the minor was a senior at the school, he and Thorne exchanged text messages and images, and after the student was an adult, became engaged in sexual activity.

According to court documents, Thorne is charged with displaying "an obscene picture of a nude figure," and permitted the minor to "engage as a subject in the production of obscene matter, to wit: nude photos."

The Capital reported that the student, now 19, said the incident changed his life, and he did not return to college after the investigation began in 2012.