A Connecticut high school teacher who taught social studies and coached varsity golf was arrested on Monday on child pornography and voyeurism charges, accused of taking photos of children including up-skirt and buttocks shots of students in his class, according to police. An investigation is ongoing.
Christian Stevenson, 52, taught at Rockville High School in Vernon for 22 years and was reportedly linked to 48 images of young girls prepubescent and pubescent girls nude or partially nude, as the Hartford Courant reported. “Some pictures showed girls in suggestive poses, while others showed a girl being made to perform a sexual act. Nine images qualified as child pornography under Connecticut state statutes,” the outlet reported.
“The investigation began after police received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that images of suspected child pornography were being uploaded through Yahoo! Inc. email accounts,” WFSB reported.
In September, police discovered hundreds of images from Stevenson from what looked like the inside of Rockville High School. “Cops recognized two students, ages 15 and 17, in the photos, which focused on young female students’ backsides, breasts or genitals. One image showed an upskirt shot of a teen student in his social studies class, cops said in one warrant,” the New York Post noted.
According to a warrant, “The focus of the photographs were the buttocks, chest, or vaginal areas of young female students. None of the students appeared to have any idea they were being photographed.”
The Courant reported that the girl who was 15 years old at the time of the photos was “extremely distraught” when she was interviewed by police, saying she was devastated by the revelation because of her great respect for Stevenson. The girl who was 17 at the time said she “still owned the shorts she was wearing in the photographs and now felt the need to burn them.”
The warrants stated, according to WFSB:
None of the students appeared to have any idea they were being photographed or recorded. Some of the photographs/recordings appeared to have been taken while Stevenson was sitting at a desk, others while walking behind students in a hallway. I observed images of students at school sporting events that appeared to have been taken covertly.
All of the images depicted young girls, several of them clearly prepubescent, in sexually suggestive poses and in revealing clothing, partially nude, or completely nude. There were several images of what appeared to be the same girl who appears to be about 12.
The superintendent of schools, Joseph Macary, said Stevenson was immediately placed on administrative leave upon officials learning of the investigation on Sept. 15 and that he resigned the same day, The Courant noted.
Police charged him with “importing child pornography, second-degree illegal possession of child pornography, eight counts of voyeurism, nine counts of disorderly conduct, four counts of voyeurism with a child under 16 years of age, and four counts of risk of injury to a minor,” WFSB concluded.