Pinellas teacher arrested for child porn

Investigators with the Attorney General's CyberCrime Task Force, the Clearwater Police Department and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement today arrested a Pinellas County middle school teacher on charges of child pornography possession.

Aaron J. Stewart, a teacher at Clearwater Intermediate School, was booked into the Pinellas County Jail after investigators seized his computer at his Clearwater home. Stewart, 28, admitted to knowingly possessing the images identified during an undercover Internet investigation, many of which appeared to be of children as young as 7 or 8, according to a news release issued by the Attorney General's office.

Stewart will be charged with one count of promoting the sexual performance of a child, a second-degree felony, and eight counts of possession of child pornography, a third-degree felony. If convicted of all charges, he faces up to 55 years in prison.

- Donna Winchester, Pinellas education reporter

Comments

[Joel, Pinellas Park]

My youngest daughter cried as we read this article. She tells me Mr. Stewart was a wonderful teacher and a good person, always kind, funny and helpful. I asked if he ever touched her inappropriately, or anyone else, and she said “No”. He was, she said, too nice for that.
I do not condone what Mr. Stewart did, but I wonder what he did that was so bad as to warrant 55years in prison. He viewed pictures but did not pursue children. Deplorable, I grant you, but when did we decide that “no tolerance” is the best course of action? When did we start believing that one screw-up so grossly outweighs all the good a man has done? Doesn’t the good he did count for anything? I’d hate to think that a man’s life, any man’s life, can be remembered for a single event and ruined because of it.
His life is essentially over. His occupation, his livelihood, gone. His family will be tormented by this spectre for the rest of their life. Guilt. Shame. Fear. I wonder what else was found on his computer that isn’t deplorable, what items or files or pictures that tell the story of the man not being slain for a weakness (not a disease) that will be his enduring legacy.
When I read the article I wanted to hate this man, this monster who prays on children, but watching the tears roll down my daughters face, I could not. Instead I found myself wondering: what have we, as a society, become? What have I, that I was so ready to want to hate him? Where has the compassion we once carried gone? Can we ever get it back? For his sake, and for ours, I hope we can. For his sake, I hope all the good that he did will be counted as well as this bad.
I wish I knew this man. Maybe I’d get some Ted Bundy type vibe from him and want to crucify him as the law seems so wanton to. But I do not. All I have is the tears spilt by my daughter, her anguish on his behalf, her memory of this man to go by. That memory is what I hope she keeps, and I hope that others will find, as I have suddenly found myself, questioning what would be an equitable punishment. A faithful punishment, not a vengeful one. A balance. Fifty-five years? Seems a bit out of balance to me.

What happened to innocent until proven guilty. No other occupation makes the news.
Shame on the media. Shame on the legal system.

If we allow people to possess child porn without SEVERE consequences, we will create a market for child porn and therefore put more children at risk of becoming victims.

Some unthinkable acts are unforgivable. Some unthinkable acts deserve severe punishment.

It was just a matter of time before this "kind man" preyed upon the children in his classrooms.

His move to an alternative school put him closer to likely victims. Students who most adults refuse to believe.

Joel,

Your daughter is a child, she'll get over it.

Joel,

Your daughter is a child, she'll get over it.

its hard to get over seeing one of my favorite techers arrested :(