NY state teacher arrested on sex charges
NEWS10 Exclusive: Teacher’s Shocking MySpace.com Profile:
37-year-old teacher Kirk Helwig from Columbia High in Albany New York is in a bit of trouble. He is accused of having sex with a 16-year-old student at the school while school was in session. Now a local media outlet is reporting on Helwig’s more than suspicious MySpace. It seems that Mr. Helwig has his age listed as 15 when he’s actually 37.
“He talks to the students online,” says Krystal Rivers, a junior at Columbia High.
A quick search on MySpace.com displays Hellwig’s profile, where he initially describes himself as a 15-year-old “just taking life for a ride” - a discrepancy that came as no surprise to Columbia High students.
“It says he’s 15, and his ‘About Me’ says he’s 34, so I don’t really know what that’s about,” freshman Sam Schiffer says.
“I think it’s really weird that he has his age as like, 15, and stuff,” says freshman Amber Biechman.
“It’s definitely not appropriate - it’s not appropriate for anyone to lie about their age,” Rivers says.
After being given access by Hellwig, his private profile then explains that he is a 34-year-old teacher living in Albany, New York. Police say Hellwig is 37.
Sources close to this investigation say the page sent up red flags to police way before recent allegations, after a complaint that questionable information about students was showing up on the teacher’s page.
“I know he had a lot of students on his page, a lot of students had him on their ‘Top Friends’,” says Kate Nalley, one of Hellwig’s students.
Some may say that he posted his age as 15 because that automatically makes your profile private. However, you don’t have to change your age to make your profile private.
For all I know he may just be one of those teachers trying to be friends with his students. In my opinion we need less of that and more teachers who want to teach. There are certain lines that shouldn’t be crossed in order to keep a level of professionalism and a non-disruptive learning environment. Mr. Helwig obviously crossed some line.
Tags: Columbia-High-School, Kirk-Helwig, sex-with-a-student
2 opinions for NY state teacher arrested on sex charges
David
May 23, 2007 at 1:44 pm
Changing your age to less than 16 allows you to browse profiles for anyone older than the age you specify. So, theoretically, he would be able to browse for 16 year olds.
Trench
May 23, 2007 at 1:45 pm
It also turns out that his profile pic is of him when he was a teen.
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