CMS Teacher Facing Peeping Charges

A Charlotte-Mecklenburg high school teacher is accused of taking cell phone pictures up the skirts of a mother and her 13-year-old daughter on Monday at a south Charlotte Harris Teeter.

Steven Skinner, an English teacher at South Mecklenburg High School, is charged with two counts of felony peeping using a photographic imaging device.

He has been suspended with pay from his job.

According to the CMS website, Skinner is a 1977 Duke graduate and has 24 years of experience in the classroom. He has been teaching at South Mecklenburg for about six years. Skinner’s biography also says he's married with two children.

Customers at the Harris Teeter on Carmel Road, where police said the incident happened, said they were surprised by the accusations.

"I had to make sure that this was for real because it just almost sounded like a prank," Colin Niebuhr said.

Students at South Meck were similarly surprised. One freshman said her sister had Skinner as an English teacher.

“(My sister) just literally called me and she said, ‘Tell me what happened with Mr. Skinner,’ and I was like, ‘Oh, I heard about it from people at school,’ and she was, like, ‘It's so -- I wouldn't expect that from him.’”

“I heard he was a really good teacher and everyone liked him,” another student said. “The kids all liked him, so it was a surprise to everyone.”