Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Special Ed Teacher Accused of Sending Nude Pics to Student

Episode Date: June 9, 2026

Ryan Cunningham, 33, is accused of having sexual contact with a former student at a school where he taught until February 2026. The allegations date back to 2021 at Skyward Academy in Montgomery, Ohio. The former student reported the activity to police and a grand jury returned an indictment on several charges including sexual battery and disseminating matter harmful to juveniles. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy goes through Cunningham's police interview in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Take your business to the next level with a free 14-day trial at https://odoo.com/crimefix.Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5CRIME 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.

She says that you guys kissed on the stage, or like behind the curtain on the stage. She said that happened. She said that happened one time. A teacher at a school for students with special needs sitting in an interrogation room accused of sex crimes involving one of his own students. I promised you nothing happened at school. Why would she say? I don't know. Welcome to Crime Fix.

I'm Anjanette Levy. Ryan Cunningham was a teacher at a school for students with special education. educational needs, but that has changed in February 26. Police in Montgomery, Ohio, that's a bedroom community of Cincinnati, received a report that Cunningham had had an inappropriate relationship with a student years earlier. It was February 24th when Cunningham went to the police department voluntarily to answer some questions. Thank you for coming in. Appreciate it. No problem.

Sure, it was nice for you. Everything. Yeah, so we can get this out of the way. So, first and foremost, like I told you on the phone, you're not coming here to get arrested. Okay, you're not. There's no warrants. You're going to walk right back out of that door

at any point you want. And you can even walk out of the door right now. I'm not going to stop you. Okay. Yeah. So there's no charge against you. This is what's called a consensual, like basically encounter

where we're just going to discuss things. And then you're going to go on your way. Even if you were to sit here and tell me that you've done, you sold a kilo of cocaine on your way here, You don't get arrested today. Nothing you say today is going to result to get arrested, aside for murder.

Don't confess to a murder while we got out. So aside from that. So long story short, obviously something came up to us that said that there was something going on involving you, okay? And you and some students. Now, apparently I'm going to be contacted

later today by a student that I don't know who it is, I don't know what she has, but some student is going to come, or former student, I'm assuming, is going to come forward today and bring me a bunch of stuff. Don't know who this person is.

I've just been told it's coming. So maybe I should have waited an interview until later, but I just wanted to get this out of the way. Yeah, all right. Real quick, apparently Skyward Academy, how long has that been there? I moved here eight years ago, and it's been in that same church building for eight years.

I know it was existing before I was even here. We always thought those were little kids there. No, they're middle school and high school. We go from fourth grade to seniors. Okay. And we used to have a launch pad that would, they were a job at 22, but we got rid of the launch pad. Okay, so those kids were like learning disabilities and stuff? Yeah, autism, stuff like that.

Gotcha. Okay. And you've been there eight years? I think that's an eight year, yeah. Really? Okay. At that time, Cunningham was a teacher at Skyward Academy, a school for children, with special educational needs. He taught science. In today's world, when it comes to teaching, when I was in school, there were no cell phones, with no social media. Do you share social media and you share self-funds with students? No, I do not.

Okay. So the only student I gave my number two is Jay, but he left, graduated from another school, and that is it. Okay. I made the mistake one time my first year gave my number to, they called him President John Mab, but that was my first year. I didn't understand, like, they didn't have, like, regulations where, like, He would FaceTime me every day, so I ended up blocking him. Okay.

But no, no information is dispersed. I've, like, changed everything, like, social media since I started teaching here to private, or I've deleted every, you know, because they always are asking, can I have your number? Can I have everything? Right, right. Honestly, I wouldn't thought that teachers do share that. No.

No. That's why I expected. No. So that wasn't like a trick question. Yeah. I really just thought that. Okay. All right.

Well, I can tell you that the student. came me yesterday, apparently saved every single thing that you and her ever had a conversation. Screenshots and everything. Okay. And some of it includes your phone number. Okay. I mean, she gave me your phone number

and said, I don't know if this is still a good number or not, but it was a 740 area code or whatever. And so I, of course, as a detective, we can look up sort of things. So I ran you through a system and I went, well, the phone number's still the same. But she had your phone number. Okay.

Okay. She had screenshots of messages between YouTube. She had screenshots of Instagram, screenshots of Snapchat, and stuff like that. Okay. So I'm going to say there's at least one more students that had your stuff.

Okay. Now, aside from her, is there any other female students that have ever had your stuff? No, not that I know of. Okay. Well, the way this reads is, and I can tell you,

guy to guy, she's coming on to you. From what I read, I can tell you, and I'm not through everything, because she dumped a lot on me. And to the point where at first I was taking screenshots, like taking pictures of her phone with my phone, and I finally said, how many of these do we have, just email them to me?

Okay, and then she just did a big dump. I mean, it sent me a drive, basically. But the way these read is, to me, she's coming on to you. Okay? And you, in your defense, say, we need to wait until graduation and that kind of stuff. Running a business is tough enough, but why make it harder doing things manually or relying on dozens of apps that don't talk to each other?

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And did you talk on Instagram and Snapchat? I haven't had Instagram in a while. Maybe on Instagram, maybe she just saw that you were viewing her stories or whatever, not stories, but viewing her stuff. And keep mind, this was three or five years ago. Yeah. I don't know why, I don't know what causes. Walk in to the police department on February 23rd, 2026. I don't have an answer to that.

Okay. Because there's the same people that followed me to my babysitter. house. Tell me about that. Tell me about that. A year ago, they can't even. Who's the day?

It's something to do with a boyfriend, I don't know. Okay. First? I would assume. I don't know. But they followed me to the babysitter's house, and then we went to Patavius Police Department

and filed a report there, and then they said nothing, like, you know. They actually filed a report there, too? Yeah, I wonder if I still have it. Because I know I've tried, I still have the gentleman's number I came in here the next morning to

You came into the hard place for it? So this was, the incident happened April 9th of what year? Last year. Yeah, that's the whole file. Come on, okay, look at that. You named Township? Yeah. Okay. I don't know for the whole.

Because I tried to send it to the officer here, but it was not allowing that transition or whatever. Any idea why they were following me? No. How'd you know they were falling in? Well, the dude got out. When I went to pick up my kid, the guy got outside of his car and confronted me saying he wanted to handle it like man or whatever. Okay.

But yeah, I filed that and the police said that it was over or whatever. Hmm. Yeah, I'll follow you. That's a report number on here. I think there is. The allegations in this case go back to 2021, and that comes up in the conversation with the detective. Have you ever heard of law grooming or anything like that? I've heard that word.

Well, grooming is basically when a adult or a teacher basically takes a juvenile and they're kind of like, I don't know, steering them towards like maybe their sexual activity with them or something like that. What's good for you is grooming became a law last year. grooming is not a law in what is this 2021? 2000-201 and 2003. Grooming doesn't exist. Okay, so I don't believe grooming's on the table. So there's a lot in these text messages that I don't know if they constitute a crime.

I truly don't know. But there are things in these text messages that I think, and you can probably admit this, where you may have went a little bit past the boundary, you should have gone to the teacher. I would agree. So in some of these text messages, and I printed out a couple.

Like I said, she's got, she saved everything. And in these texts, there's a lot where she, you basically tell her not the safeties. Yeah. Do you tell her, like, because I'm,

I'm sure this could probably screw you up in profession. Yeah. What's up with the fake account? The fake Snapchat. She told me, like, if I want, like if she wanted to talk

and that would be the best way to do it. Did you do a fake one? Yeah. Okay. But, yeah, like, there's one. here where I mean she even slurs out there that I had a dream about you and stuff like that which again that's

her talking that's her doing that but then you know you say just no after graduation we can actually text and talk without care I'm all about that that kind of thing do you talk about kissing on the stage do you remember that incident? No we never did that

my students are never allowed to be alone Well, there's a time where you mentioned to her, it's, what's it called? Fun Friday? Is that that it called? Yeah, every Friday we have a Fun Friday. It was, hey, go behind the curtain and it didn't look like you're looking for a board game. Yeah, I remember that, yeah. Okay, so what happened there?

Nope, like nothing. Okay. Well, she says you guys kissed, and there's something in here that leads me to believe that happened to it. No. Okay. So you don't think you kissed her that day? No. Okay.

Do you think you've ever kissed her? After graduation, yeah. Okay. Yeah, and then here's another one. After graduation, we decided to try things out, and it doesn't work because of life. It's not crushing. But then also in here, I guess she has sex with a boyfriend. Do you remember those days?

And I guess one of her friends comes in telling you for some reason. Yeah, I know she had a boyfriend. I don't know what all they did. Okay. Well, in the messages. from you, you even asked her, did you think of me when you guys did? That's a question you asked her. Do you remember that? It's a question of me asking her if she thought of me?

Yes. You actually said, you thought of me, right? And again, I don't think that's a crime. I don't know, but I don't remember that. Okay. So Ryan Cunningham admits to first, kissing this student after graduation, and second, having really inappropriate conversations with her. The detective indicates it's not a crime. The conversation continues. She says that you guys kissed on the state,

or like behind the curtain on the stage. She said that happened. She said that happened one time. No. Okay. And she also said that there were some pictures that she sent you of nudity. Is that true?

Yes. Okay. And she said that you responded by sending pictures. Yes. Okay. And she, at the time was 18. She's a senior, but she's 18. Which, again, I think there's a loophole in the wall where I'm not finding where a teacher sending an 18-year-old student is a chronic because the student is now an adult.

And the student-teacher relationship has to involve sexual contact and conduct. And I've yet to find anything that says sending pictures and appropriate pictures is involved in. So it's like the gray area of the wall. never even thought about cover. So that's lucky for you as well. Now, her sending you pictures, obviously that will be child pornography if she's

when she does it because she's 16, 17. Okay? But that's years ago. I don't have those pictures yet. I don't have, now, I'm writing a search warrant for her Snapchat. Her Snapchat from 22, I don't say 2001, 2021 to 2023. I'm writing

that, okay? My understanding is that's where you also send pictures to her. Is that true? Probably looking back, yeah. Okay. Man, that's a long time. Am I going to see pictures of your genitals when I get these results? Is that what I'm going to see here?

Probably, I am. Okay. Now, again, that happening, are you sending that? Leads me to think that you probably kissed her one time behind the stage. I promise you nothing happened at school. Okay. Why would she say that? I don't know.

I don't know why she would bring all this up like five years later, you know. That's a very fair point. That's a very fair point. I don't know. Okay. So have you ever had a relationship like this with any other student? No. Okay, so any idea who's coming forward to me today?

No. I truly have no idea. Okay. Because apparently, like I said, she said, okay, and just so you know, there's going to be another girl coming forward with a bunch of information, blah, blah, blah, blah. I truly have no idea. Okay. So there is no one else on?

No. No. What was it about? Gotcha. She just kept bothering me and bothering me. I mean, I know I was in the moment. adult and whatnot, but like I just broke down. It was a rough time in that era, you know, like back in the, when was it, 2020? 21 to 2020. Yeah, that was a really rough, you know,

time in my life, but that's still no excuse to do. Right. But are you married? Yeah. Were you married then? No. No, we pushed back the wedding. We had our own stuff going on, like, just with my wife's mental health, my mental health at that point, put back the wedding, and then things just crumbled. We're still together and when that, but... Does she know about all this stuff? No, she knew, like, I got followed. She knew there was a student that kept, like, trying to...

But that's it. But she doesn't know how you participate. No. Okay. Does the school know that? No, I've been open with that. I said that the problem for a while because she just kept bugging and bugging me. But when the school reads stuff like, I can't wait until you're...

Yeah, they won't know that, but I plan on tell them about. Okay. Are you going to talk about pictures? Yeah, her and I are going to talk after this. Okay. Now, we dropped the audio on Ryan Cunningham's wife's name, no need to put her on blast here. But you know, this had to be a difficult conversation that he was planning to have with her later on.

Cunningham said they weren't married at that time, but it sounds like they were together. We're guys, we're dumb. I'll just say, we're done. We don't, hell, I'm 48, and I'm so not smart. But they say, what, a man of brain doesn't form until you're like 10 or 30. You're not even 30 in this time. So, but, you know, there's something here.

Who's Rocky, by the way? My dog. Okay, that's what I thought. I could tell him was a kid or a dog. I was going with a dog. Yeah, but there's, you know, she says she wants to break up at one point, and you say, why now or something to that effect? Were you and your now wife on a break at this point,

or was it just bad time? Just bad timing. I didn't even know that we were dating. Yeah, I mean, can we not say chats until after graduation? And that kind of thing. What I do from this point on is I basically got to type this all up. And like I said, I don't know that there's a crime here. I actually really don't.

Because it's, like I said, grooming didn't become a law until 2025. But that is grooming in the finals. I can tell you that. If you were doing that today, you would be getting arrested. Yeah. Okay. So know that and don't fall for that anymore. Yeah, no.

But I don't know, and I don't think, like I said, I don't think sending a picture of, you know, to an 18-year-old is a crime. even though it's a student teacher. I don't know that that's a crime. Were you actually her teacher? No, I wasn't, no. Okay.

Never? Never. Okay. She was on the grade team. I'm on the red team. How did you guys even ever meet? Well, it's like a school of 35 to 50 kids. So you know every kid?

Yeah. Gotcha. Okay. So I don't know that that's a crime. Now, I had the feeling that Melissa is probably not going to be happy. Yeah. Do you think you're going to keep your job? through this? Probably not. Probably not. I mean, I wouldn't think. Okay. Yeah, I don't know anything about that

part. Ryan Cunningham definitely lost his job the same day he spoke with the detective. The school released a statement that said in part, Skyward Academy prioritizes the safety and well-being of its students. We take every available step to protect our students. Skyward Academy has cooperated fully with the criminal investigation and will continue to do so. In the interview, the detective returned to the incident they've discussed involving the student on that stage. Whenever an allegation such as this, we got to present to the prosecutor, the prosecutor says, and no crime there, I'll be upfront with you about the whole thing.

There will never be a time where you look at your mirror, there's a cop behind you and you and you think a . . . . . . . . that was not going to happen. Okay. I will contact you, I will call you. Your number one. is not going to change, correct? You're going to keep the same number? I mean, unless you think I should change it, I mean... Does she bother you?

No. Okay. Like, I've blocked every... No, I wouldn't change it. So I was only trying to get all of it. No, I'm not what I was going to say. If I did change it, I would call here and then... Yeah, right?

Again, I can't explain why it's happening now. I don't know. Typically, when something like this happens and it's years later, it's, you know, my dad or my grandpa, and when I was like seven years old, that happened. in my 26 years I've never had five years ago

my teacher did I've never had that so yeah I don't know what's birthed it's on but here we are yeah so like I said

I don't know what's coming my way later today if that's something to know I'll let you know but I got to type this up I'll present it

again if you see a cop guard in the room mirror don't think that's that's the end for it if they decide they want to press charges on it like they'd be in the prosecutor's office if they decide there's something here, I will call you and let you know, hey man, just so you know, they said, yeah, they're going to go forward. Okay.

Now, what about entail? I don't know. I can't tell you because I don't know what criminal charge fits. Okay. Because I've got the final. If they believe that you guys kissed on the stage, I don't know if that then rises to the level. If they believe, like I said, she says you put your hand on her thigh.

Right. She says that happened at the table. I mean, I don't. In my mind, how can a dick be legal but a hand on the thigh? Maybe not. So to me, the hand on the thigh, I don't see that. It's necessarily bleeding to anything. But that's why I'm confused.

Like, that didn't happen. The kiss didn't happen. Let me find the thing about the stage here. Because we talked about it, and I know that, talked about kissing. Yeah. There's something about the stage. And she mentioned the stage before I saw the text. Why did this relationship not happen after graduation?

I just said I was in a better place. Like, you know, like, I mean, you even say here, I was in a bad place. I didn't permit that. And here's one where you're talking about having sex with her, but you never did have sex with her. Never. She says that as well. Like, if she was going to make up a lie to, like, try to ruin you, she probably came in and said, we had sex. Yeah.

I mean, that would be what she said. She said you never did, which honestly surprised me, given everything else that she was held. I honestly thought that was what was coming and it didn't happen. I'm also not seeing the part where the talk about your dog and stuff like that. Like I said, I did not print off everything. I just run out of bank. Do you have any questions for me? Like, you said you don't know, like if I get arrested or whatnot, like, because my wife works seven,

six and then obviously she doesn't get home until seven because she works in blush as well and then I have my kid though in rest and something like this I have a fine frame well we're talking months down the room

which unfortunately means that's going to be in their head for months but it wouldn't be anything that happens today tomorrow next week because the just system moves slow but what it would be is I type it up it gets presented And I still got to wait for some of the Snapchat stuff coming out. Snapjad takes probably two, three weeks.

Several weeks passed, and the prosecutors made up their mind about Ryan Cunningham. A grand jury indicted him on three counts of sexual battery, pandering obscenity involving a minor and disseminating matter harmful to juveniles. He was picked up by police and booked into the jail. You can see a corrections officer searching him at the wall. Ryan Cunningham pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. He posted a $10,000 bond. He's on electronic monitoring, and he's allowed to leave his home during work hours.

Now, take a listen to this. This is likely part of what got him indicted. Like I said, I got to see if sending an 18-year-old student is a crime. I have yet to find that it is. I have to see if putting a hand on the thigh is a crime, kissing on the stage. And here's what I saw, by the way. Here's one of the things. There are multiple things here.

This is you talking. I think we both have non-stop thought of each other, am I right? And not stop thinking about the stage, or that might just be mean. But like I said way back, I think eventually after graduation, we know it's actually experienced it without being afraid of being walked in on kissing that is. Yeah. I mean, that makes it sound like you kissed on stage. I'm just telling you.

Yeah. I mean, the plan was to, but we never did. Okay. Well, she says you did. Right. I tell you that. Right. She also, like I said, says that you touched her thigh.

Yeah. Ryan Cunningham will be back in court at the end of June and we'll let you know what happens. 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.