School board meeting held after VA high school AD accused of sending nudes to student
Parents react to James Wood High School AD's arrest
In Winchester, Virginia, a public school board meeting was held where parents voiced their concerns about their child's safety after an athletic director was arrested for sending nude photos to a minor. FOX 5's Julie Donaldson attended that meeting and has the details.
WINCHESTER, Va. - There's outrage in Winchester, Va., after a high school athletic director was arrested for allegedly sending explicit photos of himself to a student.
A school board meeting is being held Tuesday night and, as it’s open to the public, it’s expected that school leaders will address the disturbing incident.
What We Know
The backstory:
Brian Sullivan, 35, is facing felony charges for allegedly sending nude pictures of himself, including an explicit image of his exposed genitalia, to a 17-year-old student on social media between November 2024 and January 2025. It apparently happened away from school and after school hours.
Sullivan has been the athletic director at James Wood High School in Winchester since 2022. He was even named soccer coach of the year in 2019.
He was arrested in Pennsylvania over the weekend and at last check, he had not yet been extradited to Virginia. Sullivan was reportedly visiting family in Ross Township when the warrant was issued. He was taken into custody on Monday with the assistance of the Ross Township Police Department.
FOX 5 is told the allegations were reported to the authorities last week but that school administrators may have first learned about this in early November. Sullivan has been placed on administrative leave.
Winchester Community Speaks Out
What they're saying:
A former student of Sullivan, Kasey Powers, said she wasn’t surprised when she heard about the allegations.
"He used to be my teacher like when I was a junior in high school and, yeah, he was ok, but he was a little…little weird," Powers said. "He just definitely was creepy towards a lot of the girls in my class, even me."’
One parent was outraged when she heard the news.
"They better be checking on him. He shouldn't be in school doing that. I don't have any children in school anymore, so I don't know a lot of the news, but something like that is not good. It's not good for school. It's not good for the community," mom Kathy Burke said.
VA high school athletic director arrested for sending teen nudes
There's outrage in Winchester, Va. after a high school athletic director was arrested for allegedly sending explicit photos of himself to a student. A school board meeting is being held Tuesday night and as it’s open to the public, it’s expected that school leaders will address the disturbing incident.
Other Winchester residents say they’re disappointed to see someone in a position of power abuse it.
"I think it's sad that there are people that we trust a lot and have a lot of influence on our children who can't really be trusted," Paige Patterson told FOX 5. "I wonder why someone who has a job like that would risk losing everything over this type of behavior."
"As a member of this community, it's very concerning but not surprising, and there were a lot of people that said they weren't surprised by it and that's sad because I think there should've been some alarm bells going off and maybe checking before the situation got to the point where it's at," another Winchester resident, Karen O'Hare told FOX 5.
What The School Says:
In a statement to FOX 5, Frederick County Virginia Public Schools said, in part, "Frederick County Public Schools...takes this matter extremely seriously. FCPS has been following established procedures...to thoroughly investigate this matter and take appropriate action."
The case is being investigated by the Frederick County Sheriff's Office and school system.
The school board meetings will be starting soon and the public session starts at 7 p.m., at which point we're told the community can talk about any matters they wish — and this will no doubt come up.