Ex-Chester County SC teacher arrested after asking minor for sexual picture, deputies say
A former chorus teacher at Chester High School has been arrested after asking an underage child for a lewd photo in an online chatroom, officials said.
Zachary Aaron Parisher, 25, of Columbia, was charged Wednesday afternoon by Chester County Sheriff’s Office deputies with one count of first-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, according to sheriff officials and an arrest warrant obtained by The Herald.
Parisher is no longer employed by the district, Chris Christoff, Chester County School District spokesman, told The Herald Wednesday. Christoff declined to say if Parisher was fired or resigned, saying it was a personnel matter.
According to arrest warrants, Parisher knew he was talking to a minor on the internet chatroom when he asked for and received a picture from the female child.
The allegations of illegal acts happened July 11 while Parisher was employed as a teacher at the school, said Grant Suskin, spokesman for the sheriff’s office.
The sheriff’s office investigated the case for about two weeks after the victim reported the allegations, Suskin said.
Authorities did not identify the child, including whether the child was a student at the school or where the child lives.
Parisher had been with the district for two years, Christoff said.
First-degree sexual exploitation of a minor under South Carolina law is defined as some who, “uses, employs, induces, coerces, encourages, or facilitates a minor to engage in or assist others to engage in sexual activity or appear in a state of sexually explicit nudity when a reasonable person would infer the purpose is sexual stimulation for a live performance or for the purpose of producing material that contains a visual representation depicting this activity or a state of sexually explicit nudity when a reasonable person would infer the purpose is sexual stimulation.”
A conviction for the offense carries a mandatory prison sentence of three years, up to 20 years in the S.C. Department of Corrections.
Parisher remained in the Chester County jail Wednesday after he was arrested, pending a first appearance in court.
Check back for updates on this developing story.
This story was originally published August 11, 2021 at 6:12 PM.
