A teacher in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, who allegedly targeted teenage girls by setting up fake profiles to lure them into sending naked photos is now facing charges.
The Lower Merion School District (LMSD) said 31-year-old Jeremy Schobel, an English teacher at Harriton High School, was arrested on Wednesday, the Miami Herald reported Friday.
“People were pretty shocked. There were some teachers that were really upset, you know, scared that was in our school,” one student told 6 ABC Philadelphia:
Now, the suspect is facing charges of enticement of a minor to engage in illicit sexual conduct and manufacture and attempted manufacture of child pornography, the Herald report said.
Authorities began investigating the matter in November once the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children was tipped off about a Yubo account allegedly “grooming” minors, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which said it was eventually discovered Schobel used the account.
“Yubo provided account information for the ‘sophiavan423’ account including that the user identified herself to be a 17-year-old girl and posted two photographs to her profile that depicted what appeared to be a girl of that age,” a criminal complaint said.
The man is also accused of using another account to speak with teen girls. He also allegedly used the Snapchat app to interact with them.
During one such interaction, a girl reportedly gave him nude images after they conversed for a few days.
The suspect has since reportedly admitted to the FBI he set up the profiles to get sexually explicit images. The criminal complaint reportedly said he then used those images to masturbate.
“He advised agents that he had committed these crimes for years and communicated with many underaged girls, which he identified as between the ages of 16 and 18 years,” the document said.
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) defines child pornography as a type of child sexual exploitation.
“The production of child pornography creates a permanent record of a child’s sexual abuse. When these images are placed on the Internet and disseminated online, the victimization of the children continues in perpetuity,” the agency continued.
According to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN), victims of such abuse have said they suffered outcomes such as guilt, shame, blame, low self-esteem, post-traumatic stress disorder, and depression.
Meanwhile, the school district announced Thursday it suspended Schobel. Before he was hired in the 2021-2022 school year, the man “had no prior record that would have precluded his hiring,” a spokesperson said in a letter to families regarding the case, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
The spokesperson added that “LMSD is not aware of any inappropriate interactions between Mr. Schobel and LMSD students.”
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