A teacher from South Carolina, facing accusations of grooming and sexually abusing a teenage boy over several years, was granted a $40,000 bond this week after her lawyer disclosed that she is pregnant and has a young child at home.

Nicole Ballew Callaham, aged 33, is charged by the Greenville Police Department with eight counts of criminal sexual conduct involving a child and four counts of unlawful conduct towards a child. Additionally, the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office has filed three charges of criminal sexual conduct with a minor against her, along with a charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, as reported by WHNS. The Clemson City Police Department is also conducting an investigation.

She surrendered to the Anderson County Detention Center last Thursday.

Her defense attorney expressed eagerness for a court day but did not disclose the identity of the father of Callaham’s children. The Daily Mail reported that she has a fiancé.

But Callaham’s victim, now 18-year-old Grant Strickland, spoke in court, saying he wanted to come forward publicly to help others in his position.

“I’m here to fight and I’m not going to back down,” Strickland told WHNS. “I think more awareness needs to be brought to things like this. And just because I’m a man doesn’t mean that it should be shunned away. Because I was a child.”

Deputies said last week that Strickland was 14 when the abuse began in 2021 and continued for at least two years. Strickland did not attend the school where Callaham worked; instead, he and his family met her while she was the director of musical theater productions for a play.

“The relationship intensified as she reportedly signed the student out of school, transported him to practices, and served as a supervisor for after-school activities,” the sheriff’s office said in a release. “These repeated interactions led to a prolonged pattern of abuse, which was corroborated by search warrants and ongoing cooperation with the victim’s family.”

Strickland’s mother said in a letter read in court that Callaham “manipulated our son and our family.”

“She saw our son’s innocence and that he was very easily manipulated,” she wrote.

Strickland came forward after spending some time processing what happened to him.

Callaham worked for Homeland Park Primary School from 2017 until her resignation in May, the school district said.