A former Kansas high school art teacher accused of grooming and having illegal sexual relations with an underage student will stand trial on four felony charges, a judge determined this week.
Nicole Hernandez30, appeared in court on Tuesday, December 2, after being charged with four counts of illegal sexual relations with a student, KAKE.com reported.
Hernandez, who also goes by the name “Nikki Baird,” was arrested back on May 22, but made her first court appearance last month, according to the Wichita Eagle.
She no longer teaches art at Wichita North High School, where the victim — a 17-year-old boy — was a student.
Wichita police began looking into Hernandez after receiving a tip on May 19 about a specific Instagram post that said the married teacher had an “inappropriate relationship” with a former Wichita school district student.
The Eagleciting an affidavit in the case, reports that the school became aware of Hernandez’s alleged behavior during the 2023-2024 school year, and that the matter was dealt with internally. The affidavit does not include information about the outcome of that probe.
Administrators approached Hernandez in May after learning she was being investigated, and she allegedly “admitted … that she got too close” to the student “and crossed the line,” according to the Eagle.
She initially claimed that she had an emotional relationship with the boy that began after he graduated high school. But the dates for each of the four crimes that is accused before the graduation of the student, reported the paper.
She also claimed that things with the young man never became physical.
But the student, now an adult, told investigators otherwise. She supported him throughout his sophomore, junior and senior years of high school, he claimed. “He described how she befriended him, then isolated him from others,” the affidavit said, according to the Eagle.
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Then she started “touching or rubbing his back or shoulders” and soon started asking for a hug from him. The student claimed that he spent a lot of time alone with the teacher, and that they started sending text messages to each other. Hernandez “sent him a message about how her marriage was struggling,” read the affidavit. A letter she allegedly wrote to him “he said, ‘I hope and pray that one day I will have the chance to be with you’ and ‘I know that I love you'”
When he was older, and the two were spending time together at a local art center, she allegedly grabbed his hand and held it. Back at school, Hernandez allegedly kissed the boy’s neck during one of their hugs.
Hernandez later arranged for them to meet after school, and “kept asking him if he wanted to kiss him,” it is alleged in the affidavit. the Eagle reported. “He said he was nervous and eventually said, ‘yes.'” Hernandez allegedly told the boy to keep the interaction a secret.
The touch continued and became more intimate. Then, the week before he graduated, Hernandez asked the boy into her office, where she told him to touch her body. Hours after his graduation ceremony, Hernandez arranged to meet the student at a random location, and the boy “felt pressured” to have sex with her in the backseat of her Jeep.
Hernandez allegedly told the young victim that what they were doing was legal, because he was a graduate. The sexual assaults then continued for weeks afterward, and Hernandez began sending the boy nude photos of herself, the Eagle reported.
Over time, the young man cut off communication with the educator after realizing “the relationship he had with her [her] was inappropriate and had been manipulated by [Hernandez],” according to the affidavit.
The Eagle reported that the cops claimed she visited the young man at his workplace and even left candy on his car while it was parked in his driveway. This terrified the young man, who told his parents, and later shared the nude photos with investigators, according to the affidavit.
Hernandez was released from jail on a $50,000 bond and is due back in court on July 28. Attempts to reach her attorney for comment were unsuccessful Friday.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).