Female Teacher Took Nude Choir Photos, Cops Say

June 12, 2005 -- -- A southern Kentucky teacher is facing charges she gave her high school chorus students alcohol before a field trip to perform in New York City, and one of her students told police that the teacher had taken "half nude" photographs of him and a female student in their high school chorus room.

Choir teacher Danielle Brown was arrested Thursday morning after Franklin, Ky., police executed a search warrant at her Bowling Green home Wednesday night, looking for computers, a digital camera and other items. Police have refused to release details about what was found.

Brown, the wife of a Baptist preacher who quit her teaching job on June 6, after school officials learned of the allegations that she had given students alcohol, was charged with six counts of unlawful transaction with a minor in the third degree.

The trouble allegedly started on the night of June 2, when the 21 members of the high school chorus stayed in the school overnight in preparation for a 4 a.m. departure to catch a flight to New York City, where they were to perform at Carnegie Hall.

"It was meant to be a special, special trip," Simpson County Schools superintendent Jim Flynn said.

Brown, however, apparently did not make arrangements to have two parents serve as additional chaperones, and the students were alone with her overnight, Flynn said.

School officials learned the next morning that Brown allegedly gave some of the students alcohol, though they declined to say how they learned about the events of that night.

When Flynn learned that Brown was the only chaperone with the students in New York, he sent Franklin-Simpson High School Principal Gary Houchens to join the group.

With the principal along, the group performed at Carnegie Hall, and Brown offered her resignation, Flynn said.

But that was not the end of the alleged problems. Brown and two students did not return from New York with the rest of the choir on June 6, and then the three missed another flight they were supposed to take the next morning.