A teacher of an elementary school in Houston has been charged for possessing and distributing child pornography.

Robert Peri, a music teacher at Memorial Elementary School, was detained Wednesday at his home in the 6900 block of Woodside Drive, Sugar Land, Texas, per court documents. He was booked under federal possession and distribution of child pornography charges.

“HISD [Houston Independent School District] has learned that a Memorial Elementary School teacher has been arrested by authorities. Given the seriousness of the allegations, the employee has been placed on administrative leave. We take situations such as this very seriously, and we are cooperating fully with law enforcement officials,” the school district said in a statement.

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) received a tip in October that pornography was being distributed by a specific e-mail address. The Department of Homeland Security probed into the matter and found Peri exchanged at least 263 images of child porn among unidentified individuals using both a personal computer and an HISD computer.

Between December 2018 and September 2019, Peri’s activities included commenting on images, requesting passwords to albums containing child porn, and commenting on collections of child porn, Click 2 Houston reported, citing investigators.

Peri admitted to saving the porn images on a flash drive and on a spare computer in his home, according to court documents. He allegedly told investigators that he received the images and shared them with others through his e-mail and used them to masturbate.

Investigators said they unearthed more child porn from Peri’s other computers and flash drives.

Child sexual abuse
This picture shows a representational image of an unhappy schoolboy. Getty Images/ Peter Dazeley
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