“I used to be a toddler. I wasn’t a person. I used to be a boy,” says the now 18-year-old, after his former musical theater director was arrested and accused of “a chronic and inappropriate relationship” with the teenager.
An 18-year-old South Carolina teenager who says he was 14 when his trainer began sexually assaulting him is talking out.
As he is publicly recognized himself in interviews with reporters to lift consciousness, TooFab is figuring out the teenager right here as nicely. Final week, Grant Strickland, 18, spoke with press following a bond listening to for Nicole Ballew Collaham, a 33-year-old trainer going through a number of prices from two totally different jurisdictions.
In keeping with the Anderson County Sheriff’s Workplace, she was arrested after “a chronic and inappropriate relationship” with the teenager, following an investigation launched again in Could. Per authorities, the investigation “uncovered proof that the misconduct started in 2021 and continued for at the least two years with the then teenage boy.”
The Sheriff charged her with Prison Sexual Conduct with a Minor and Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor. The Greenville Police Division additionally, individually, charged her with Prison Sexual Conduct with a Minor and Illegal Conduct In direction of a Baby.
“I am right here to struggle and I am not going to again down,” Strickland mentioned to WYFF. “I feel extra consciousness must be dropped at issues like this and simply because I am a person does not imply it needs to be shunned away. I used to be a toddler. I wasn’t a person. I used to be a boy.”
In keeping with the teenager’s mom, Allison Strickland, her son had a love of theater and met Callaham when she was working as a director of musical theater on a manufacturing of Legally Blonde on the Challenge Problem Playhouse. Callaham additionally reportedly labored as a kindergarten trainer at Homeland Park Main Faculty from 2017 till resigning on Could 21, 2025; Strickland was not considered one of her college students there.
“Callaham, an Anderson County college trainer on the time, engaged in grooming habits towards the boy throughout his early teenage years,” mentioned the Anderson County Sheriff. “The connection intensified as she reportedly signed the coed out of college, transported him to practices, and served as a supervisor for after-school actions.”
“These repeated interactions led to a chronic sample of abuse, which was corroborated by search warrants and ongoing cooperation with the sufferer’s household,” the Sheriff’s assertion continued. “In keeping with investigators, the sufferer made the choice to return ahead after turning 18, following time spent processing the expertise and trauma related to the abuse.”
Oakland County Jail
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Callaham surrendered herself to authorities on Thursday morning; she has since posted $40,000 bond and left jail in Anderson County, earlier than she was taken to Greenville County for a separate bond listening to there this morning.
Per Court docket TV, a press release from the sufferer — who mentioned he was “lonely and depressed” when he first met Callaham — was learn by an advocate at Monday’s listening to.
“She noticed I used to be susceptible and used that to her benefit,” learn the letter, which additionally accuses Callaham of “calling him slurs and suggesting he kill himself,” per Court docket TV. “What began as consideration throughout a college play rapidly changed into manipulation, emotional abuse and trauma that I by no means ought to have needed to carry.”
Whereas prosecutors requested for Callaham to be held with out bail, her attorneys confirmed she’s eight to 9 weeks pregnant and is due for prenatal appointments. She was granted bond and, as a part of the situations, Callaham should keep on home arrest at dwelling together with her fiancé and might haven’t any contact with the sufferer.
Fb/Cape Could County Correctional Middle
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“It is made me come to appreciate that I needed to develop up very, very quick and get one a complete different maturity stage I wasn’t prepared for,” Strickland instructed press final week, saying coming ahead with the allegations has felt “like a weight lifted off of me.”
He instructed reporters he “had forgotten” many of the particulars of what allegedly occurred, saying he began to recollect extra after he had “lastly spoken up about it.”
“I’d like to convey extra consciousness to indicate this occurs and it occurs lots. It is not simply to girls, it is males too,” he continued. “It occurs to kids and it is gotta cease. I’d by no means need somebody to undergo what I went by means of as a result of I do not assume most individuals could be robust sufficient to outlive it, as a result of I nearly did not.”
He additionally urged others to not “preserve quiet due to another person, or if another person tells you to,” including, “Defend your peace, as a result of ultimately, that is what’s going to matter.”
In Anderson County Court docket, Callaham’s lawyer reportedly mentioned they “sit up for a day in courtroom.”
The Clemson Metropolis Police Division can be allegedly investigating the case.
Christina and Michael Formella, Fb/DuPage County State’s Lawyer Workplace
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