Ex-teacher accused of sex with teen he met in classroom
GRAND RAPIDS. Mich. (WOOD) — A former Grand Rapids Catholic schools teacher who was fired in 2022 for providing alcohol to minors is now facing felony charges that accuse him of having sex with a teenage boy he met in the classroom.
Nicholas Coe Young, 26, had a recent court appearance on three counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a student. The charge is a 15-year felony.
The case came to light nearly two years after Young was charged with providing alcohol to minors in two separate cases, one in March 2022 and the other a month later.
Young is accused of having sex with a teenage boy over the span of 15 months starting in August 2022 — after he was fired from Catholic Central High School in Grand Rapids over the alcohol allegations.
The boy’s mother contacted Grand Rapids police in March of this year to report her son “was taken advantage of and sexually assaulted by a fired teacher of Catholic Central High School,” according to a police report. The boy is now 17.
“The victim reports feeling manipulated by Nicholas and reported not always wanting to engage in physical sex acts with him but felt used and that Nicholas only wanted sex from the victim,” a Grand Rapids police detective wrote in court records.
Charges were filed earlier this month. The case is now in Kent County Circuit Court. Young, who lists a home address in Saginaw County, was released on a $200,000 bond. Messages left with his attorney were not returned.
In a statement to Target 8, a spokesperson for Catholic Central said the school had “no evidence to suggest that any improper activities happened while this individual was an employee or on school property.”
The criminal statute used to prosecute Young addresses circumstances in which the victim was a student and the defendant, a school employee, “used his or her status to gain access to or to establish a relationship with the victim.”
“This broadens the criminal sexual conduct statute so if someone works at a school where the victim was enrolled, there are specific penalties covering illegal behavior,” Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker said.
According to a police report and court records, sex acts occurred at several locations across Kent County, including at Lookout Park off Fairview Avenue NE in Grand Rapids when the boy was 16.
“The mother reported that a former teacher of her child, Nicholas Young, had taken advantage of the teen which led to a sexual relationship,” Grand Rapids Police officer Kayla Oxender wrote in a probable cause affidavit.
“The mother had located and provided some sexually graphic text messages from and photos of Nicholas, including a fully nude photo,” the detective wrote.
Attempts were made by the parents to contact Young in November 2022 with no answer, but the communications between Young and the boy stopped, court records show.
“The following year, she discovered that they had continued their relationship until she learned and contacted Nicholas’ new place of employment and fiancé to notify them of his behavior,” court records show.
In an interview last month with Grand Rapids police, the boy said he and Young began communicating again, which led to the meeting in person “in several locations throughout the greater Grand Rapids area,’’ records show.
The two “engaged in various sex acts,” and “exchanged nude photos regularly,” according to the probable cause affidavit.
“The victim was looking for a friend and someone to talk to sometimes, but Nicholas would turn the encounter sexual,” court records show. “The victim reports after Nicholas said ‘I know you didn’t want to, but it made me happy.'”
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