(Harris-Stowe State University)
ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) - The charges dropped on the The Dean of the College of Education at Harris-Stowe State University have been dropped and the case can never be refiled, according to officials.
According to court documents, Dr. Nicole Nunn-Faron reportedly created a OneDrive shared folder for common forms while employed at St. Charles Community College. On April 23, part-time faculty attempted to access the folder, but it was missing. The college’s IT department looked into the matter and learned about 459 files had been deleted under Nunn-Faron’s login. The IT department restored some files under her log-in but needed Microsoft’s assistance to recover about 214. Microsoft told the college that the files were transferred to an external hard drive before being deleted.
Police said some files transferred from the Shared drive contained information about students who wanted to become teachers. One of the files was reportedly for Francis Howell students who wanted to enroll in the program to become teachers and filled out a teacher candidate profile for a criminal background check, which contained no personal information and a Tuberculosis test consent form that had their names, college ID number, date of birth and age.
While police were investigating, they said they learned that Nunn-Faron had contacted someone with IT asking for assistance moving files to an eternal hard drive. The drive was turned over to the college by her attorney on July 23, police said.
Nunn-Faron is charged with one misdemeanor count of tampering with computer data.
Nunn-Faron became the Dean of the College of Education for Harrs-Stowe State University on July 1, 2024. The university said they were not notified of the investigation or pending charges during the hiring process. The university released the below statement on Tuesday morning:
Nunn-Faron became the Dean of the College of Education for Harrs-Stowe State University on July 1, 2024. The university said they were not notified of the investigation or pending charges during the hiring process. The university released the below statement on Tuesday morning:
“We have recently been made aware of charges filed against Dr. Nicole Nunn-Faron, alleging she tampered with hundreds of student files during her previous employment at St. Charles Community College.
In light of these serious allegations, Dr. Nunn-Faron has been put on a leave of absence pending our internal investigation.
We are committed to upholding the highest ethical standards. Our priority remains providing excellent education and support to our students.”