Grand Island teacher, student arrested in trafficking case

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — A Grand Island high school teacher and 17-year-old male student have been arrested in what police are calling a human trafficking case involving other students at the school.

The Grand Island Police Department said in a news release that 37-year-old Brian Mohr, an English teacher at Northwest High School, was arrested Tuesday, along with the 17-year-old student.

Police said the 17-year-old boy obtained sexually explicit images of minors via a social media ruse and used some of those images to coerce the minors into performing sex acts. Police said he also shared the images with Mohr. Many of those in the images have been identified as students at the school where Mohr taught and that the 17-year-old attends, police said.

Mohr was arrested on suspicion of several counts of possessing child pornography. The student was arrested on suspicion of first-degree sexual assault, human trafficking of a minor, unlawful intrusion and multiple counts of distribution of child pornography.

Schools superintendent Dr. Jeffrey Edwards said in a statement that school officials are cooperating with police in the investigation and that Mohr “will not be returning to the classroom.”