Teacher accused of having sex with student heads to trial

SANDPOINT – A former high school teacher in Idaho will stand trial for having sex with a former student.

Nichole Thiel was bound over to district court on Wednesday after the victim testified that the two had sex, the Bonner County Daily Bee reported.

Thiel is accused of having sex with a male student at a condominium in Sandpoint in December 2015, when she was 46 and the student was 16. The teen told investigators that he began communicating with Thiel on social media before the sexual encounter.

“One thing led to another,” the teen testified.

Thiel was the victim’s culinary arts teacher at Lake Pend Oreille High School at the time of the incident.

She invoked her right to remain silent during the preliminary hearing in Bonner County Magistrate Court.

Arraignment is scheduled for April 3. Thiel is charged with sexual assault of a teen between the ages of 16-17. She is free on her own recognizance while the case is pending.

Thiel was vice principal and athletic director of the Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy, but was placed on leave after Sandpoint police informed the school that she was the subject of a criminal investigation.