Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - 'Good Apple' Teacher Had Sex With Boy in Jeep: Police

Episode Date: December 5, 2025

Award-winning art teacher Nikki Baird was celebrated as a “Teacher of the Month” and a beloved figure in her Kansas school community. But detectives say the image she crafted was a facade. Baird now faces four felony charges accusing her of grooming a student for years and engaging in unlawful sexual relations while he was still in school. Inside the affidavit: handwritten love notes and alleged encounters in her Jeep. Law&Crime’s Angenette Levy breaks down how a respected educator ended up at the center of this disturbing case in this episode of Crime Fix, the daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: You’re 30 seconds away from being debt free with PDS Debt. Get your free assessment and find the best option for you at https://PDSDebt.com/CRIMEFIXHost:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest: Renee CastagnaProducer:Jordan ChaconCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. She's a teacher of the month, and now she is accused of the unthinkable targeting and grooming a student for sex. I go through the startling allegations being made against Nikki Baird and how her case shows how appearances can be deceiving. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. You know, in Kansas, teachers are held to a high standard just as they are in other parts of the country. They're trusted with our kids and they are expected to protect them as if they were their own children. Well, Nikki Baird, she's an award-winning art teacher who was celebrated as a teacher of the month and a good apple in her district. Now she's accused of betraying that trust in a big, big way. She was charged with four felony counts of having unlawful sexual relations with a student, according to Sedgwick County court records. From what we can gather in her social media post, Baird was somewhat of a star educator in her community,

hosting alumni events, supporting the football team, and being praised with awards. But according to a police affidavit, the perfect image was all a facade. And Nikki Baird had a dark side. Here's the alleged timeline laid out by detectives. Now, these detectives, they say this wasn't a brief fling. This was a crime that spanned many years, beginning when Baird was the boy's middle school teacher and allegedly it escalated through his high school years. The affidavit states the investigation led to Baird's arrest on May 22nd. She was charged with four felonies, made her first court appearance, and posted a $50,000 bond.

And in a new development just this week, a judge has made a. major decision about whether this case is heading to trial. Baird was back in a Wichita courtroom for a preliminary hearing on December 2nd. That's where a judge listens to the evidence and decides whether there's enough evidence to justify a full trial. The standard for that is probable cause. So that's a pretty low bar. After reviewing the police affidavit, the allegations from the victim and the evidence of the handwritten notes and nude photos, the judge ruled there is in fact enough probable cause for this case to move forward. That means Nikki Baird will go on trial on all four felony counts of unlawful sexual relations with a student. We're going to take a much

deeper dive into these documents that got us to this point. We've obtained and gone through the arrest affidavit in this case, and it lays out a methodical, disturbing pattern. Here are the key facts, as alleged by police. This whole thing started with a tip. Back on May 19th, a detective with the exploited and missing child unit was told to look at an Instagram post. That post said a teacher named Mrs. Baird had an inappropriate relationship with a former student. A copy of that post was handed to police by a security guard with the school district. But here's the critical part. The affidavit reveals that inside the school, people were already talking during the

2023, 2024 school year, a full year before the arrest, another teacher had gone to the school's principal. And that teacher said that Baird was spending too much time with this particular student. The affidavit says those concerns were handled internally by another administrator. It doesn't say how. It doesn't say what was done. It just says it was handled. The situation changed when the police investigation became known in May. When principal Murray confronted Baird about it, the affidavit states that Baird admitted to

Murray that she got too close and had crossed boundaries. At first, Baird said it was only an emotional relationship that started after the student graduated, but then she changed her story, telling the principal it actually started when he was still a senior. And the court records back that up. All the charges are for alleged conduct that happened before graduation day. Now, let's get into the victim's side of the story as he told it to detectives. He said that Baird wasn't just his high school teacher. She had been his art teacher back in middle school. too. He described a very slow process where, in his words, she befriended him, then isolated him from others. The affidavit then traces that process step by step. It details how Baird gave him her personal cell phone number. The text started about schoolwork, but quickly turned personal with Baird allegedly messaging him about how her marriage was struggling. Then came the handwritten notes. Police obtained them and the affidavit quotes two lines directly. One notes, said, I hope and pray one day I get the chance to be with you. Another said, I know that I love you.

The physical context started with what seemed like innocent trips. Baird asked the student's mother for permission to take him on errands to an art center and an art museum. The mother said yes. And on that first trip, the affidavit states that Baird reached over and held the boy's hand. Now back at the school, things escalated. Baird started kissing him on the neck when she hugged him. And then she set up a meeting off school grounds. The affidavit says that during that meeting, Baird kept asking him if he wanted her to kiss him. He said he was nervous and eventually said yes. The very next day, she told him to keep it a secret and told him to, quote, act normal. Then came graduation night. The affidavit is very clear here. It states that Baird told him to meet her in a random neighborhood in the backseat of her

Jeep. She asked if he wanted to have sex. The student said he was nervous. and felt pressured and said yes. The document goes on. She, Baird, said things similar to, It's okay, and said they won't get in trouble because he had graduated. After it was over, she allegedly offered him alcohol from under the car seat, and he said no. And it didn't stop.

After graduation, while other kids were still in class, the affidavit says that they met to have sex in her Jeep multiple times, sometimes three or four times a week. Once he'd officially graduated, she started sending him nude photos of herself. The student was explicit with detectives about why he saved some of those photos. He said he kept them, quote, knowing he could use them as evidence of what she did. Even after he ended the relationship, the affidavit alleges that bared, she wouldn't stop. It says she came to his place of work repeatedly and once left candy on his car while it was sitting in his own driveway.

In the end, the student told his family. everything and his family went to the police handing over those alleged nude photos and the handwritten notes. This is the sequence of events laid out in that police document that a judge now says is enough to send Nikki Baird to trial. Now let's talk about who Nikki Baird was before the arrest, the person behind the charges. And to understand that, you have to look at her public life, the life she curated on social media and in school newsletters. It paints a very different picture. By all public accounts, Nikki Baird wasn't just a teacher. She was a superstar educator. Let's start with the awards. She was named Mayberry's Teacher of the Month. The Post, praising her,

said she was constantly thinking of ways to engage students and that she kept the hallways colorful, culture-filled, and creative. And that wasn't a one-off. She was also a good Apple Award winner at Mayberry School. The announcement called her, along with others, amazing educators and people, and said the school was so proud to have her on the team. Her involvement went far beyond her own classroom. She was an active alumni with Fort Hayes State University helping host a community art event, and she was visibly invested in her school community

at Wichita North High. The school's football program posted a shoutout, honoring Baird, as one of their teachers of impact, who helped support the players. This was her public profile, the creative, dedicated award-winning teacher who was embedded in the heart of the school and the wider community, a trusted mentor, a positive role model. That's what makes the allegations in the affidavit so incredibly jarring. The picture

that police paint of secret notes, of meetings and parking lots, of a relationship that allegedly isolated a teenager, couldn't be further from the teacher of the month image that she shared online. Let's get real. Credit card debt is not an accident. Every call, every fee, every high interest trap, It's a system that can be designed to keep Americans stuck. Banks, profit, creditors win, and real families lose. But today's sponsor, PDS debt, helps people fight back. Whether it's credit cards, personal loans, or medical bills, PDS debt has customized options to help you pay off debt faster. No minimum credit score required. Plus, they are a plus rated by the Better Business Bureau. The system makes it so that one emergency and boom, you can fall behind and feel like you are absolutely. drowning, which is why I want you all to find solutions to your debt. It's your money. It's your future. Don't let the system decide for you. You are just 30 seconds away from being debt-free, get your free assessment, and find the best option for you right now at pdsdette.com slash crime fix. That's pdsdestdeat.com slash crime fix. So to discuss this case, I want to bring in Renee Castagna.

She is an attorney based in Los Angeles who represents survivors of sexual abuse. Renee, thanks so much for joining me. This case, you know, I'm a mom, so this just makes my blood boil when I read through this affidavit. I'm wondering, since you're an attorney who represents victims of sexual abuse, what really stands out to you when you read through the affidavit in this case? Absolutely, thank you. I think what stands out to me is that this went on for a very long time. You know, this is something we don't often see in school cases, I feel.

Just the amount of incidents that are detailed in the affidavit, all of the behavior that went on was really shocking to me. The other thing that stands out is we have a female perpetrator, which is a little bit more rare, and that's for a couple reasons, right? one of the biggest being that male survivors or victims are often less likely to disclose abuse. So we don't see it as much, though I do feel like we're seeing it a little bit more as time goes on. So those are some things that stood up to me. That's very interesting that you are saying that because I feel like you're right. For a long time there, we were hearing,

it was like, it was like teacher du jour, right? And it was always a male teacher that you were hearing about in the news who was, you know, accused of having sex with a student or sexually abusing a student, no matter if it was a younger child or somebody in their teenage years. But it seems like over the last year, maybe a year and a half, we are seeing just this rash. We've covered many of them here on crime fix here on long crime of female teachers. and it's coming out that they are accused of sex crimes involving these boys. And to what do you attribute that? Do you think that maybe there's not as much of a stigma anymore in boys coming forward and reporting these things?

Or are there just more women who have predatory instincts becoming teachers and doing this? It's a great question. I think there's a lot of stuff going on. So I think one of the things that's going on is that a female perpetrator tends to get a lot more news coverage because it seems a little bit more salacious, right? It's something we're not that used to seeing. I think that sometimes the public response is a little bit different with a female perpetrator than with a male perpetrator. So, you know, sometimes it just makes good news. So we're hearing more about it.

I also think that you hit on an important point, which is that, you know, as time goes on, we are doing a better job as a society of educating children about sexual abuse and boundary crossing and things of that nature. So I think more young boys and, you know, young men feel that they can come forward and disclose about what is happening to them. I think that, you know, this probably happened way more than we ever thought. And like I said, I think that a boy is less likely, and that's backed up by data that boys are less likely to disclose. They often take much longer to disclose. And I think also third parties that, you know, may be witnesses to certain behavior may not respond in the same way as if they, you know, when they see a man and a young

girl. So I think as a society, we're all doing better at recognizing those red flags, you know, both as, like I said, third parties, which we have in this case, right, someone who saw something and said something internally within the school system. So I think all across the board, we're all doing better in that regard. So I think that that's why we're starting to see it more. I don't think necessarily that, you know, things are changing as far as perpetrators. I think that there were probably always female perpetrators that were out there. I think we're just doing a better job recognizing that.

interesting you know it makes you kind of wonder how many how many female teachers I mean it makes me kind of think too I mean I don't know but I'm kind of like thinking back now to when I was in high school I'm like oh my god was there some female teacher back then you know you just don't know especially based on what you're just saying there are some things that really bother me about this case actually many things bother me about this case but one thing that stands out to me in particular is the fact that apparently there was some incident reported about this teacher back in the 2023, 24 school year, and it was handled. Nobody knows how it was handled. And so that's an open question. And so there were concerns. There's been talk not just like recently,

but all the way back then about, you know, Nikki Baird. And there were, there was chatter. So, So what happened? You know, it's like a lot of that stuff gets kind of like kept private because of like rules and whatever the school policies are within the district. But obviously she was allowed to remain employed. And she had, you know, and she's innocent until proven guilty, of course. But looks like we've got a pile of evidence here, you know, making her look like she committed sex crimes. And, you know, she's got this like shiny veneer. this facade going on of, you know,

Star Teacher of the Year and all this stuff. So does that stand out to you? The fact that this had been, something had gone on with the district back in 2023, 2024, and she still remained employed. Absolutely. Unfortunately, way more common than anyone would think. You know, we see a lot of institutional level failures

that allow, a teacher in particular to prey upon students. So what should have happened when this report was made, right, is the minor in question should have been interviewed immediately, parents should have been notified, the teacher in question should have been pulled from any contact with students or minors, there should have been a very robust investigation

on a district level. You know, it's a little bit unclear here, whether it was at a district level or at a school level, but those things should have happened. And depending on what, you know, was found under that investigation, the police should have been notified. Unfortunately, with these types of cases, what we see a lot is that there is a hesitation to bring the police into a situation,

especially right where an institution, in this case, you know, a school or a district feels that they may have some culpability, and, you know, they're concerned about a potential future lawsuit. So, you know, sometimes they want to handle things more quietly, which, you know, again, is not okay. We'll have to see, too, in this case, if additional victims come forward because a lot of times these are not isolated incidents. And so, you know, time will tell whether the failures that happened at an institutional level in this case allowed more children to be harmed. That sounds like mandatory reporters not reporting mandatorily.

I mean, that kind of is very upsetting to me because you hear the term mandatory reporter and you think, okay, that makes them, you know, that puts them on high alert, like that they're going to like call, but maybe they don't always do it. Absolutely. That's upsetting. This boy, you know, he is quoted as saying. I kept these items, the notes, the nude photos. I kept all this stuff.

So I would have evidence of what she did. What does that tell you about his mindset? Because this started when he was in junior high school, middle school, and then now he's out of high school. And so he's saying he kept all this stuff. Like obviously, he didn't feel comfortable enough to go tell his mom what was going on, at least not that we're aware of. So what does that tell you about what he was thinking and feeling? Unfortunately, that's very common. What it says to me, you know, right off the bat is that,

you know, the mind of a middle schooler is much different than the mind of, you know, an older teenager. So what likely, you know, was going on there is as time went on, you know, the minor in this case started to have certain feelings about what was going on, you know, knew that maybe this was wrong or inappropriate in some way and wanted to kind of hold on to those things in case this ever came to light. What it also says to me is that there was a fear in him of not being believed, which is something that's very common for survivors. Unfortunately, survivors also through the grooming process are made to feel that they are doing something wrong. There's a lot of guilt and shame that is associated with things like this. What I hear from survivors in my work

often is, you know, I don't know why I kept, you know, going to see this person. I don't know why I didn't say anything sooner. I don't know why this went on for so long. But in the cycle of grooming and abuse, and especially right with such a discrepancy in power, we have a grown adult, you know, a teacher, which is an even higher level of power compared to a child, it just creates this cycle. So I think likely what happened with the minor in this case is, you know, he probably didn't have a great understanding of what was going on when he was younger, but as time went on, it was really starting to make sense to him that what was happening was not right.

So, you know, I understand him holding onto those things because again, you know, sometimes in our society, we don't believe survivors. So he was kind of expecting that there would be some pushback. Poor kid. And just the leaving of the candy on the car, you know, her leaving candy on his car just really, it's like very cringe. You know, it reminds me of something that happened to me years ago with somebody who I tried to break it off with who would leave stuff on my car.

It was like you can't let go. It's like some weird control, creepy thing. Absolutely. It's like almost a threatening type of behavior. You know, I know where you are. I'm out here even when you don't see me. You know, those are the kinds of things that survivors are dealing with. Oh, God.

You know, this poor kid, I hope that he gets the type of help that he most certainly needs he's going to need some help for a long time absolutely yeah and trauma and i hope this you know every time we do one of these Renee i really hope it kind of dispels that whole like hot for teacher myth that's what i call it you know like that that's kind of what i have deemed it you know that you know where was she when i was in high school that kind of thing you know um that's my hope yeah absolutely anytime uh and you know we we touched on this a little bit right the difference in reaction with a female perpetrator, right? If you go on any of these stories on social media, you read the comments and they're saying

exactly what you're referring to, right? Oh, where was she when I was in high school? I wouldn't have complained. I wouldn't have told anyone, you know, things like that. And that just doubles down, right, on that guilt and shame and make survivors less likely to come forward. And again, especially the boys and young men. Yeah, it's really devastating.

Renee Castagna, thank you so much for joining me. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. Nicole Baird will be back in a Wichita courtroom on December 19th for her arraignment. At that time, she'll enter a plea to the charges. Until then, she remains free on bond. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.