Baptist School Principal Faces Sex Abuse Rap

By Bob McGovern
Boston Herald
January 16, 2014

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2014/01/baptist_school_principal_faces_sex_abuse_rap

Parents and employees at a small Baptist school in Attleboro were “devastated” when they heard the school’s principal had been charged with sexually abusing a student on campus over nearly five years, and the alleged victim said she felt “relieved” after speaking to police.

The Rev. Jeffrey Nichols, 47, principal of Grace Baptist Christian Academy and assistant pastor at an affiliated church, was arrested early Tuesday after an 18-year-old senior reported to Attleboro police that he had “victimized” her from September 2008 to June 2013, according to a police report obtained by the Herald. Nichols was arraigned Tuesday and is being held on $25,000 cash bail.

“I’m just relieved now, and I feel like he deserves everything he’s getting,” Nichols’ accuser told the Herald.

Church pastor and school co-founder the Rev. Jeffrey Bailey, who has been friends with Nichols for 23 years, said the school community is “devastated.”

“I had no inkling that there were any issues here at all. There was nothing in his behavior, nothing that gave us any clue that this was possible,” Bailey said.

Nichols started “a pattern of unwanted indecent sexual assault and batteries” on the girl when she was 13 years old, which later included requests “for sexual favors” that she “continually denied,” according to the police report.

“Totally unexpected, but you never know who people are,” said Paul Mendes, who was picking up his kids at the school yesterday.

The girl told her parents about the incidents Monday night, and they called Nichols, who drove to her house and “basically said, ‘Yes, it’s all true,’?” Bailey said. Nichols told his wife and three kids — who are all enrolled in the school — before going to Bailey’s house, where he “admitted everything,” according to Bailey. Bailey said he fired Nichols on the spot.

Nichols voluntarily went to the police station and “admitted to all allegations made by (the) victim,” according to the police report.

“We believe in forgiveness, but we also believe in justice. Justice first, and then forgiveness comes second,” Bailey said.