CEDAR LAKE, Ind. (WOWO): Authorities have charged a northwestern Indiana high school chemistry teacher with taking students to a strip club and giving them alcoholic beverages at his home. 

Officials say 31-year-old Travis Lechien of Crown Point has been suspended from his teaching job at Hanover Central High School in Cedar Lake.

He faces three misdemeanor charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor filed by Lake County prosecutors.  Court documents say Lechien let the students drink beer and other alcoholic beverages at his home and took some of them to a strip club in Hammond to celebrate a student's birthday. 

Defense attorney Richard Wolter said he hadn't reviewed the case enough to comment but that Lechien intended to plead not guilty.