Police: North Cobb High School Coach, Girl Exchanged Racy Photos

A North Cobb High School assistant football coach allegedly exchanged sexually explicit photos with a 17-year-old girl.

The alleged exchange between the girl and Ryne Thomas Thackston of Acworth occurred on March 5, according to a Cobb County criminal warrant.

Thackston "did send and receive sexually explicit photographs, via text messaging, to and from a seventeen year old female," a Cobb police officer wrote in the warrant. "The accused sent two separate digital images of his penis, via text message, to the victim."

Additionally, the officer wrote, Thackston "received numerous digital images and videos of the victim via text messaging. The images and videos showed the victim nude or partially nude and engaging in lewd acts and sexually explicit conduct."

Thackston was arrested Friday morning on one count of sexual exploitation of children, just hours before North Cobb held its graduation ceremony.

He was released from the Cobb County Adult Detention Center early Saturday morning on a $20,000 bond.

Though Thackston isn't listed on the football team's website, he was a wide receiver's coach during the Warriors' historic 2012 season, according to the Marietta Daily Journal. North Cobb had not won a postseason game since 1979, and fell just short of advancing to its first state title game in more than 50 years.

Cobb County School District spokesman Doug Goodwin said Thackston's official title was substitute teacher and community coach.

"His last date of service in that capacity was March 7, 2013," Goodwin said.

Thackston is at least the third coach in the Cobb school system accused of inappropriate sexual conduct in the last 11 months.

In June, an assistant coach on McEachern's football, girls basketball, and track and field teams surrendered to Cobb authorities amid allegations that he had sex with a female student who was enrolled at McEachern on Jan. 15, 2012. That coach, Terrance Tarpley, was indicted in March on one count of sexual assault against a student.

And when Harrison High head football coach Marty Galbraith resigned in October, at least six women had complained to Cobb County School District officials that he had allegedly made unwanted sexual advances, gestures or remarks toward them. Galbraith was never criminally charged.

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• Update: McEachern Coach Bonds Out of Jail