Teacher hired by Kyle school indicted on child porn charges

Dear Friends:

I don't often send these types of news reports--partly because they are so common. However, it is White Ribbon Against Pornography week and the scale of this offender's actions is particularly remarkable: he had a collection of 57,000 images and 1,000 videos. Presumably a substantial proportion of that collection is of child pornography (I don't know, but I think its reasonable to speculate that this offender began with adult pornography). This case shows how once this type of behavior/addiction takes hold, too much is never enough.

Abolition!

Lisa

P.S. Remember: adult pornography also feeds child sexual abuse. As Bob Peters of Morality in Media has carefully documented (http://www.moralityinmedia.org/):

• Perpetrators use adult pornography to groom their victims.
• For many perpetrators there is a progression from viewing adult pornography to viewing child pornography.
• Johns act out what they view in adult pornography with child prostitutes and pimps use adult pornography to instruct child prostitutes.
• Children imitate behavior they view in adult pornography with other children
• Perpetrators use adult pornography to sexually arouse themselves.
• Addiction to adult pornography destroys marriages, and children raised in one-parent households are more likely to be sexually exploited.
  

Remember also, that pornography is simply recorded acts of prostitution--acts of prostitution recorded for mass consumption!

Teacher hired by Kyle school indicted on child porn charges
Stephen Wayne Sudduth resigned before he was to start work at Tobias Elementary, an official said.
By Ricardo GándaraAMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Friday, October 30, 2009

A man hired to teach fifth grade at Tobias Elementary School in Kyle — but who resigned July 20 and never started work — has been indicted on child pornography charges in what state Attorney General Greg Abbott called one of the most "disturbing, depraved and horrendous kinds of crimes imaginable."

Acting on a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, cyber crimes investigators found more than 57,000 images and 1,000 videos of children on computers at the home of Stephen Wayne Sudduth, 34, of Sealy, Abbott said. Sudduth was arrested at his home July 14 and was indicted Wednesday on 30 counts of possession of child pornography and 10 counts of promotion of child pornography in Austin County. He was employed at Nottingham Country Elementary School in the Katy Independent School District as a kindergarten teacher from 2000 to 2006, Abbott said.

Sudduth remains in jail with bail set at $500,000, said Jerry Strickland, spokesman for the attorney general's office.

Julie Jerome, spokeswoman for the Hays Consolidated Independent School District, said that a criminal background check of Sudduth done when he applied for a job in June turned up nothing. "We rely on criminal background checks when hiring people. He had no criminal record," Jerome said.

According to a résumé he submitted to the school district, Sudduth graduated from Southwest Texas State University, now Texas State University, in 2000. He interviewed with the Tobias Elementary principal and was recommended to be hired on June 4, but on July 20 he resigned, citing personal reasons, Jerome said.

"He had no contact with kids, absolutely not," she said.

Abbott said what was so alarming about the case is that the former teacher was going to school daily and was in contact with children of the same age as those in the images and videos allegedly seized by investigators.

Abbott said some of the children in the images might be from foreign countries, but some might be from Texas or other parts of the United States. Investigators are sorting through the evidence, he said.

Investigators suspect that Sudduth was collecting sexually explicit images of children, and also creating images and promoting them in forums and message boards as part of a distribution ring.

"We feel certain he's connected with other people," Abbott said.

He advised parents to monitor their children.

"We want to try to get to the adults and parents. Elementary school kids are exposed to these dangers," he said.

Under Texas law, possession of child pornography is a third-degree felony punishable by up to 10 years in state prison and a fine of up to $10,0000. Promotion of child pornography is a second-degree felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.