A Long Beach man who taught math at an Anaheim middle school was charged with four felonies Tuesday after Long Beach Police Department detectives discovered dozens of child pornography images posted to a microblogging account.
Aaron Paul Widera, 38, faces up to six years in prison if convicted of the charges, which include two counts of possession of matter depicting a minor engaging in sexual conduct and one count each of obscene matter depicting a person under 18 and sending or bringing obscene matter into the state for sale. He plead not guilty to all charges.
A spokeswoman for the Anaheim Union High School District confirmed for the L.A. Times that Widera is currently employed at South Junior High School, but that he has been placed on administrative leave pending the police investigation. Online records also indicate that Widera was a substitute teacher for other districts, including Long Beach Unified.
LBUSD spokesperson Chris Eftychiou confirmed that Widera did substitute in LBUSD, but that it was only for four days in 2011 while the district was undergoing layoff hearings for teachers.
“That includes one day at Hudson K-8 School, two days at Hoover Middle School, and one day at Jefferson Middle School,” Eftychiou said.
Police say that Widera was found after he posted child pornography photos to his Tumblr account. In serving a search warrant at Widera’s Bluff Park home on Friday, they allegedly discovered thousands of child porn photos. At this time, it is believed that none of the students he taught are victims.
Widera was ordered to remain jailed on $1 million bail. If convicted, he faces up to six years in state prison.