Wisconsin police said that a 29-year-old teacher was
“grooming” a student with hundreds of private messages through social media.
A criminal complaint said that the Kenosha County Department of Family Services received an anonymous tip on Feb. 2 about Christian Enwright allegedly having an inappropriate relationship with a 14-year-old student at the Kenosha School of Technology.
‘I’m trying so hard to be appropriate LOL.’
A detective in court filings characterized the interactions as “manipulation, otherwise known as grooming.” The interactions were described as “special attention, developing secrets, desensitizing and normalizing sexual topics, and pushing personal boundaries.”
The allegedly inappropriate messages began when the student was 13 years old in June 2023 and escalated to the point where Enwright sent as many as 600 messages in one week.
The student told school staff that she and Enwright were using Snapchat and TikTok to communicate on a daily basis but denied that they had done anything inappropriate. When police completed a forensics analysis on her phone, they found that he had sent her shirtless photos and referred to her as “cute.”
WITI-TV obtained screenshots of some of the interactions and published them in its news video report.
When asked about the messages, Enwright allegedly told police that he had only sent the girl images and messages because he was “trying to raise her confidence and make her feel better about herself.”
According to police, one message read, “Your dimples cute ASF,” while another read, “I’m trying so hard to be appropriate LOL.”
Parents have protested at the school over the accusations.
“It’s terrifying,” said Brittany Lawton, who is a parent of a child at the school. “We’ve always known that there was something off, there was always something not quite right, but no one knew it was going to get to kids.”
Lawton said she has known Enwright since he was a child.
“It’s just horrifying to think this could have been my kid, and it would have been swept the same way,” she added. “There is always the risk, but you never think it’s going to be so close to home.”
The district said it fired Enwright on May 7.
Judge orders bail
Enwright was charged with 22 misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct.
The suspect appeared in court on Wednesday, where his
attorney argued that the charges didn’t meet the state’s standard for disorderly conduct because the teacher didn’t have the intention of causing a disturbance at the time of their interaction.
A judge disagreed with that argument and issued a $5,000 bond for the suspect. He is also ordered to have no contact with the victim, the victim’s family, any school, or another other child apart from his own child. He also ordered to not have unsupervised access to social media.
Kenosha Police Chief Patrick Patton issued a statement about the investigation.
“The charging decision by the Kenosha County District Attorney’s Office is the culmination of countless hours of work by our Detectives to get to the truth of Mr. Enwright’s actions. We have worked in collaboration with the district attorney’s office to present all of the known information to bolster a charging decision,” read the statement in part.
Patton went on to say that the department is working with legislators to develop “proactive legislation and new state laws that will properly address behavior such as this with strict language and punishments.”
Here’s more about the arrest:
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