Rutherford County teacher under investigation for obscene photo taken in school bathroom, TBI says

By Jeremy Finley

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    NASHVILLE, Tennessee (WSMV) — The photos came one after another, from a man Kayla Lee didn’t know from Tennessee.

“Every single day, I was getting the pictures, I was getting the pictures,” the Alabama woman recalls.

The pictures came through Snapchat, featuring the man who identified himself as John. She didn’t give it much thought, never responding, until one arrived, featuring the man standing in a bathroom exposing himself.

Next came with a message with a graphic description of how he’d had graphic sex with a student on the man’s tennis team and impregnated her.

“That’s what was really scary, I thought, I have to look this guy up,” Lee said.

She found a man online whose profile matched the photos with the name John Duncan. Further searching by Lee identified Duncan as the former athletic director at Antioch High School.

“I literally was horrified. I ran into my roommate’s room and said, what do I do about this? And she said, definitely report it,” Lee said.

So Lee made a post on the Facebook page, “Stares in CPS,” showing a blurred picture of the man, the graphic message, and a group picture of him with a high school tennis team.

The graphic description tells how he had sex with a student-athlete, how a tennis racket was used in the act, and that the student had an abortion afterward. When Lee posted it, she wrote that she was worried for the children on his team.

In Murfreesboro, Madison Martin saw Lee’s post.

“Yeah, disgusted is a good word. It made me really uncomfortable,” Martin said.

Martin said she looked up the name and found a John Duncan who was now teaching at Daniel-McKee Alternative School. So, she called the school to report it, but no one returned the call.

At some point, she said she was contacted by the TBI. Martin provided the emails she exchanged with the TBI to WSMV4 Investigates.

What further alarmed Lee and Martin, is that in the obscene photo, the man appears to be standing in a school bathroom. A sign in the background counts down the days till spring break.

“If he’s a teacher, and he’s taking pictures like that inside a school, that’s not ok,” Martin said.

Lee also sent WSMV4 Investigates a series of texts between her female friend who reached out to the sender of the obscene photo and message.

In the texts, the sender writes, “I made all of it up. I was lying. Do what you gotta do.”

Lee’s friend responds, “Lying about raping a child isn’t OK.”

“Even if he made it up and it was all a joke, whatever, just having those thoughts, you don’t need to be around kids,” Martin said.

WSMV4 Investigates called the photo number of the sender, but it is now disconnected.

Duncan is also running for school board in Rutherford County, and in order to register, he had to provide his cell phone and emails. WSMV4 Investigates reached out to him by phone and through email, as well as through a family member, but did not get a response by our deadline.

A TBI spokeswoman responded in an email, writing, “We are investigating an allegation that John Duncan had taken inappropriate photos of himself inside a school. The specific location remains part of the investigation.”

Sean Braisted, spokesman for metro schools, told WSMV4 Investigates said Duncan resigned from Antioch High School at the end of the 2021-2022 school year to accept a position at Rutherford County Schools.

“We received a message on March 5 with disturbing allegations and provided them to the appropriate authorities for further investigation,” Braisted said.

A spokesman for Rutherford County schools said the district placed him on unpaid leave pending the results of the criminal investigation.

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