A South Carolina teacher has been arrested and charged in connection with what investigators describe as a years-long sexual relationship with a teenage boy.
Authorities say Nicole Ballew Callaham, 33, turned herself in at the Anderson County Detention Center on Thursday morning. She now faces a slate of charges brought by multiple law enforcement agencies. According to the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office, Callaham began grooming the boy in 2021, when he was just 14 years old.
Though the teenager did not attend the school where Callaham worked, deputies said she used her position to build a relationship with him. Over time, the alleged misconduct escalated. Investigators say she signed him out of school, drove him to sports practices, and supervised after-school activities — opportunities that, according to law enforcement, gave her repeated access to the boy and created what they call “a prolonged pattern of abuse.”
The alleged victim, Grant Strickland, is now 18. He chose to identify himself publicly at Callaham’s bond hearing, telling the court he wanted to break the silence around abuse cases like his. “All I really want the public to know is that that was a traumatic event,” he said. “I’m here to fight and I’m not going to back down. Just because I’m a man doesn’t mean that it should be shunned away. Because I was a child.”
Strickland said it took years to process what happened to him. He explained that he decided to finally come forward to show people that this kind of abuse really does happen. He told the court, “It happens a lot, and it’s not just to women, it’s to men, too, and it happens to young children, and it’s gotta stop.”
His mother, in a letter read by a detective, described the betrayal her family feels. She said Callaham first entered their lives as the director of a local musical theater production, where she befriended their son. “Looking back, it sickens me knowing Nicki manipulated our son and our family,” she wrote.
The charges against Callaham are extensive. In Anderson County, she faces three counts of criminal sexual conduct with a minor and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Greenville police, who say some of the abuse occurred within their jurisdiction, have charged her with eight additional counts of criminal sexual conduct with a minor and four counts of unlawful conduct toward a child.
Investigators allege Callaham gave the boy alcohol, marijuana, and nicotine, and engaged in sexual acts in locations including a hotel and a parking garage in Greenville. The Clemson City Police Department is also conducting its own investigation.
Callaham’s attorney told the court she has cooperated fully with authorities and stressed that she has no prior criminal record. He added that she is pregnant and caring for a young child. The judge set her bond at $40,000 and ordered her to have no contact with Strickland or his family.
Officials say the case remains under investigation.
