Community Corner
Police Investigating Fired Benilde Teacher; Hickman Defended by Teen He Photographed
A teen Jon Hickman photographed in a bikini defended him in an interview with KSTP.
After a Benilde-St. Margaret's engineering teacher was fired for having "inappropriate communication" with students, St. Louis Park police are investigating whether there was any criminal conduct.
Jon Hickman, a professional photographer, was let go from the school last Wednesday. It's unclear whether the pictures he took of young men and women were the cause of his firing.
"Any such activities including senior photographs or artistic modeling photographs are not connected with or endorsed by BSM," Benilde's president Bob Tift wrote in an email to parents.
One teenage girl, who Hickman photographed in a bikini, defended him in an interview with KSTP. Maggie Dickey of Vadnais Heights—not a student of Hickman's—contacted him through the website ModelMayhem.com. The aspiring model later exchanged Facebook messages with Hickman.
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Dickey's mother, Jody, met Hickman before the shoot and also found him professional.
"It's just a bathing suit, a couple pictures on a website," she said. "It's pretty natural for young people to wear a swimsuit."
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