Ex-student Says Assistant Principal Gave Him Booze, Drugs

By David Bienick
WCVB
April 29, 2017

http://www.wcvb.com/article/ex-student-says-assistant-principal-gave-him-booze-drugs/9579344

[with video]

A former student at Central Catholic High School in Lawrence said Friday he was one of the students who received drugs and alcohol from a former assistant principal.

The former student, who asked not to be identified, said he and classmates visited Andrew Nikonchuk’s apartment in Lowell on two occasions.

“Everybody was smoking marijuana there,” said the man, who is now in his mid-20s.

At the time, Nikonchuk was a science teacher at the school.

“It was strange, but it was kind of cool at the same time for students to hang out with him. So nobody really thought much of it way back,” he said.

The man also said he knows another former student who recently told the school that Nikonchuk had drugged and raped him in 2006.

“He came forward to his friends about a year ago about it. But he held it in for a long time,” he said.

Nikonchuk is not facing any criminal charges.

The District Attorney’s Office in Middlesex County, where the alleged rape took place, said it continues to investigate.

According to an email sent to parents, two other unnamed faculty members at Central Catholic have been placed on administrative leave this week.

One allegedly “posted compromising photos of himself on an adults-only, password protected site."

The other allegedly “sent inappropriate messages through a social media site to a former student."

“You expect Central Catholic High School to be, I guess, better than that,” said the former student.

He said he believes school administrators first learned about Nikonchuk hanging out with students at least six years ago, but they did not take sufficient steps to prevent it from happening again.

“All it takes is one story from one student to have all these other things come out. What else is going to happen? And what's going to be hidden in the future?” he said.

A spokesman for the school did not immediately respond to a request for comment.