January 7, 2005

Longtime Castlemont teacher charged with possession of child pornography

Parents and students shocked by allegations; many say Christopher Casey was a highly respected math teacher

By Sheila Sanchez
Staff Writer

More than 300 parents gathered the evening of Dec. 17 in the Castlemont Elementary School’s auditorium in the wake of shocking revelations that one of their longtime teachers—Christopher Casey—had been booked into jail, charged with one count of possession of child pornography and later released on a $5,000 bail.

The San Jose Police Department booking photo of Christopher Casey

Presided by Campbell Union School District Superintendent Johanna VanderMolen, the meeting’s purpose was to answer questions and offer support to parents and community leaders alarmed by allegations that Casey, a highly regarded math instructor who had taught at the school for 10 years, had been charged with child pornography.

On Dec. 14, at around noon, San Jose Police Department officers re-sponded to the school on several reports from students of inappropriate photos allegedly seen on Casey’s district-owned computer. Casey, 44, is a third grade school teacher who has worked for the district since 1990. He lives in San Jose, has no prior criminal record and his wife teaches at Monroe Middle School, also in the district.

According to police, one of Casey’s students observed pictures of a young female partially undressed on his computer. The student reported the incident to a parent who notified school administrators. Castlemont Elementary School Principal Barbara Anderson notified Dr. Maurice Ghysels, deputy superintendent of the Campbell Union School District, who notified police.

“We immediately jumped in and started our own investigation,” VanderMolen told the parents at the meeting. “We looked at his computer and when we found items related to child eroticism we immediately reported it to child protective services. At the same moment we contacted the police department.”

San Jose Police Department detectives with the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force/Child Exploitation Unit began an investigation.

According to Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Steve Fein, who filed the charges against Casey, child pornography is a misdemeanor and not a felony offense. He said if Casey pleads guilty or is found guilty he could serve up to a year in jail.

“It’s disturbing when a teacher of children has a sexual interest in children,” Fein said.
“Police agencies go after these people and we just prosecute them.”

Campbell Union School District Superintendent Johanna VanderMolen (in back) and Dr. Maurice Ghysels, deputy district superintendent, answered questions for more than an hour the evening of Dec. 17 after police arrested one of their teachers for possession of child pornography on campus. Photo by Sheila Sanchez

On Dec. 15, at 7 a .m., officers in plain clothes and in unmarked police cars served a search warrant at Casey’s residence and confiscated two computers. Another computer believed to have been used by Casey was taken from a relative’s home. The school computer was also confiscated and photos of partially dressed young females and child pornography were located on it. Detectives also found a folder containing child pornography in Casey’s classroom.

Later that afternoon, at around 3 p.m., Casey turned himself into the San Jose Police Department. He was booked into the Santa Clara County Jail for possession of child pornography. Detectives learned Casey had been a teacher with the school district for 15 years and taught tennis in the past.

On Dec. 16, VanderMolen sent parents and guardians an open letter in English and Spanish with the students in which she wrote that “this is a very serious and upsetting allegation and we’re cooperating fully with the detectives working the case.”

She added in the letter: “Our foremost concern is for the welfare of our students. We take matters of student safety very seriously.”

District officials, criticized for sending the open letter home with the students, justified their actions saying they wanted parents to find out the news from them and not from media outlets who covered the incident thoroughly the following day. VanderMolen said district officials also thought about contacting parents through the school telephone messenger system, but realized it wouldn’t be as effective as the letter.

“I wanted to get the message to parents as quickly as possible,” she said. “We made this strategic decision to write a quick letter between 1 p.m. and 2:10 p.m. and get it into the hands of the kids... We had one hour and 10 minutes to make 700 letters.

Some parents later complained to VanderMolen that the letter hadn’t been sealed in an envelope to spare the children the confusion and severity of the announcement. Counselors and psychologists were on campus Dec. 16 to help students deal with the news, particularly to assist third grade students as Casey taught math to those children.

One unidentified parent at the meeting reported his son allegedly saw pornographic pictures in November, and asked the parent what the school was doing to prevent it from happening again. “How do I know that it’s not a picture of my son?” the parent asked in broken English.

VanderMolen assured him that school officials believed no pictures of Castlemont students were found and the images were believed to be pornographic photos from the Internet. She urged parents to speak to their children about their concerns. “We need to take care of our kids,” she stressed.

Another parent asked what technology the district used to prevent child pornography from being used in school computers.

Ghysels explained the district has Web filters purchased from a company called Webfence through the Santa Clara County Office of Education, which looks at Web sites on a daily basis to prevent teachers from accessing illegal, violent or pornographic sites. “Like anything on the Internet it’s not 100 percent fool proof,” he said. “These things are monitored daily and they’re updated daily.

Castlemont Elementary School parent Ron Laccabue expresses concerns about his child’s wellbeing with revelations that a teacher has been charged with child pornography. Photo by Sheila Sanchez

“We’re always looking at security for the Internet. We’re always concerned about it. This has obviously heightened our senses even more,” Ghysels added. “We’re very explicit to our employees and students about the use of the Internet. We have a strict Internet use policy, which requires us to only use it for school and business purposes.

We expect our teachers to be professionals.”

Other parents asked how to explain to their children what pornography is. San Jose Police Sgt. Tom Sims, head of the Child Exploitation Detail and Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, explained child pornography is the sexual exploitation of a child under the age of 18 who is naked and where the focus of the image is on the genitalia.

The prevailing concern among parents during the meeting was whether their children had been involved in the images. Many wanted to know the age of the children in the photos.

While repeating that the investigation is continuing, VanderMolen said no district child is believed to be in the photos. “You can help us. Talk to your children. You have the better line to your children. The age of pornography is 18 years and younger… We’re not talking babies and we’re not talking adults. We’re talking a wide variety (of photos).”

One parent asked in Spanish if his child had been inappropriately photographed as Casey had reportedly helped him after school with his math assignments in the homework center. VanderMolen again stressed school officials believed no student had been inappropriately touched or involved in the photos.

Donna Wolf, who’s been a teacher for six years, is substituting during the first week of school. The district said it would aggressively recruit a qualified math teacher to replace Casey.

Longtime Campbell resident Matthew Dean, a former mayor and city councilman, said four of his children had Casey as a teacher. He said his children have said Casey never touched them inappropriately or showed them illicit material. Dean’s 10-year-old daughter, Courtney, had Casey as a teacher. He recommended school officials audit their computers.

Dean has known Casey since attending Leland High School with him. “I was startled. Just stunned when I found out. He’s a very good teacher. He’s well liked by the children. I’m hoping that there’s some explanation that something else was going on. That it wasn’t him,” he said.

Other parents asked how the district could prevent child pornography from ever being available on school computers. VanderMolen explained the district officials have reached out to all their schools and teachers to assess the situation and encourage children to speak up when they see something wrong. “The spy software is not going to stop someone with this kind of attitude. I just believe that. I hope I’m wrong,” VanderMolen said.

Parent Andrea Schmiedeskamp, whose daughter attends kindergarten at Castlemont, asked district officials to more aggressively screen teachers and district employees for criminal behavior.

VanderMolen said the Department of Justice notifies the district when applicants have a previous criminal records. Schmiedeskamp also asked whether the district should begin performing psychological evaluations of prospective teachers to screen for child pornography. VanderMolen said when teachers are arrested for DUIs, the district immediately receives an e-mail with the information.

“I would love to say to you and I would love to say to me, ‘Never, ever, ever, will this happen again.’ I don’t want it to ever, ever, happen again. In the information age, people do weird things. It’s not what we want. I want this to stop and it’s going to stop because of us,” VanderMolen said, who’s been with the district for five years and who’s worked at eight other school districts. “We need to identify it soon before it opens up in the classroom.”

VanderMolen assured parents Casey will not be allowed to return to the school until all charges are cleared. She said the school has given him notification that he’s not supposed to be anywhere near the school. “I have strong confidence in our police department,” she said, adding that students would continue to receive psychological counseling when they returned to class after the holiday break. “I’m very troubled by this. I just apologize. I’m sorry.”

Anderson reported there have been some incidents of bullying at the school with children calling other children, “Mr. Casey.” She said children who bully and use inappropriate language will be punished. Anderson also said school administrators have been speaking with administrators at Monroe Middle School because many children there had Casey as a teacher.

“What do we do when we have trouble trusting the people who are supposed to protect your children?” Schmiedeskamp asked. “I hope that they’re right when they say it’s an isolated case.”

Anyone with information on the case is urged to call San Jose police detective David Gonzalez or detective Adam Tovar at (408) 277-4102. Persons wishing to remain anonymous can call Crime Stoppers at (408) 947-STOP (7867).