A 37-year-old junior high school teacher in Lethbridge, Alta. is facing a number of child pornography charges after an investigation by the Alberta Law Enforcement Teams (ALERT) Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) team.
Police said the investigation first began in January 2017 when ICE was given a tip from the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) about a user who was uploading child sexual exploitation materials. The ICE team did not know the user was a teacher until recently, a news release said.
ALERT said the ICE team arrested Dwayne Schnell on Wednesday. He is charged with possession, accessing and distributing child pornography. A number of computers and electronic devices were seized from his home in Lethbridge and will be examined.
Police said Schnell may face more charges as this investigation is still on-going.
ALERT said Schnell teaches Grades 7 to 12 at the Lethbridge French language school École La Vérendrye.
At a press conference Thursday afternoon, school superintendent Daniel Therrian said teachers and staff at the school were told about the charges Thursday morning. Therrian said the students are not in classes Thursday or Friday because of a teachers’ convention, but the board plans to have resources available to help the kids when classes resume.
He said parents were informed through a memo as soon as the information became public Thursday morning.
Cst. Jason Richards also spoke at the press conference and said he does not think any students were victims or that any of the crimes took place at the school. Schnell was teaching computer technologies.
Richards said he believes there will be more charges coming as the investigation continues.
École La Vérendrye parent council president Gabriel Asselin told Global News parents were given information to help them navigate the situation with their children.
“They’ve suggested how you can simplify the topic a bit and how to address the issue,” he said.
“Everybody’s shocked with what’s happened. Nobody saw that coming, obviously.”
Schnell is scheduled to appear in court Feb. 23.
Lethbridge is 212 kilometres south of Calgary.
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