Teacher on trial for allowing striptease in class

VIDEO - If convicted Nathan Grigsby could face five years in jail and up to $5,000 dollars in fines...

Luther Vandross was outed as gay after his death.

A former chorus teacher at Southwest DeKalb County High School in Dekalb County, Georgia is on trial for allegedly contributing to the deliquency of minors after students performed a risque dance in his classroom.

If convicted Nathan Grigsby could face five years in jail and up to $5,000 dollars in fines.

The incident happened last year. In court Monday lawyers showed cell phone video of three male students who performed a striptease style dance. The young men removed their jackets and were not wearing shirts. One of them later dropped his pants and danced briefly in his boxer shorts.

It was a parent, Reginald Brayon, who alerted authorities to the existence of the cell phone video after seeing it on his son’s Facebook page.

“You see the guys begin to actually put hands on and grab some of the young ladies. In one case they grabbed a young lady, opened her legs and actually imitated sexual acts,” Brayon said.

Prosecutors said Grigsby was in the classroom the entire time. They pointed out in court that he is visible at the beginning of the video and appears to clap. Later, he is not as his desk then toward the end he returns and appears to smile.

Grigsby’s attorney, Jackie Patterson, said that proves his client’s rendition of what happened.

“The tape is a minute and eight seconds. For a minute of that Mr. Grigsby had his back turned with headphones on assisting another student with music. When he turned back around and realized what was happening he stopped the music. The tape ends two seconds after that,” Patterson said.

Patterson insists all three boys want to testify on behalf of Grigsby, but in a stunning development the judge stopped the proceedings Monday to arraign two of the boys on charges of public indecency and disrupting a public school. That raises the stakes against the young men because if they choose to still testify anything they say could be used against them in their court proceedings.

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