Staff Report
BRANT NEWS

A former part-time residential counselor and educational assistant at W. Ross Macdonald School is facing charges in relation to an alleged improper sexual relationship with a 15-year-old student at the Brantford school for the visually impaired.

Alicia Dawn Swerdfiger of Brantford faces charges of luring a child and invitation to sexual touching.

Police allege that Swerdfiger, 33, befriended the victim, a low vision student at the school, in October 2012. Police say the two joined a popular social media site and began texting one another.

In late 2012, Swerdfiger is alleged to have engaged the victim in a number of sexually explicit text message exchanges. She is also accused of sending two sexually explicit photographs of herself to the victim.

Police say they have not found evidence of a physical relationship between the accused and the victim.

Swerdfiger has been released from police custody pending her first court appearance. She is forbidden to have any contact with the school.