Brooklyn High School Teacher Arrested For Child Porn

MANHATTAN BEACH – A teacher at the Leon M. Goldstein High School for the Sciences was arrested on Wednesday and charged with the production of child pornography.

According to U.S. Attorney Richard P. Donoghue, beginning in January 2017, 34-year-old Jonathan Deutsch targeted hundreds of Facebook users who appeared to be minors, using Facebook messenger to contact them and often informing the victims that he was a teacher “as part of his broader effort to groom these minors for sexual exploitation.”

Deutsch allegedly communicated with at least 45 minors, requesting and receiving sexually explicit images or videos from at least four who ranged in age from 10- to 16-years-old. Deutsch instructed the victims to send him photos or videos of themselves performing sexually explicit acts and sent them sexual photos that he claimed were of himself.

Deutsch previously taught English, Special Education, and Theater Arts at two other Brooklyn high schools—Edward R. Murrow and Brooklyn Tech—as well as at Gramercy Arts High School in Manhattan, NBC New York reports.

A representative for the NYC Department of Education told NBC New York the charges are “extremely disturbing,” and said Deutsch was reassigned “away from students” in January. The rep said they will terminate Deutsch as soon as it is “legally possible.”

The FBI worked with the NYPD in investigating this case and apprehending Deutsch. “Our children deserve to grow up in a world where they don’t have to face overcoming the horrors and scars of sexual abuse,” Assistant Director-in-Charge of the FBI, William F. Sweeney, Jr., said in a statement. “The fact that this suspect was a teacher makes this crime even more egregious.”

Deutsch is charged with five counts of sexual exploitation of a child. If convicted of any of the counts, he faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison.