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By Michael Hasch
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, February 15, 2005

A special education teacher at Carrick High School was one of seven men arrested in California over the weekend after authorities in Los Angeles accused them of planning a five-day trip to Mexico to have sex with teenage boys.

Steven K. Irvin, 46, of Voskamp Street, North Side, was arrested Saturday by the FBI as he placed his luggage on a boat he believed was going to take him to Ensenada for several days of "bed, boys and breakfast," according to an affidavit of probable cause released Monday.

Irvin has been with the Pittsburgh Public Schools for about 10 years, and previously taught at Arsenal Middle School in Lawrenceville, said Sherman Shrager, vice president of the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers.

Irvin, who is charged with interstate travel for the purpose of engaging in sexual acts with a minor, is a member of the North American Man-Boy Love Association, the affidavit states. The organization, known as NAMBLA, advocates sex between men and boys.

Irvin and six other men are accused of making arrangements with an undercover agent to travel to Mexico to engage in sexual relations with minors, said Richard T. Garcia, assistant director in charge of the FBI in Los Angeles. An eighth man involved in the case is charged with distributing child pornography.

Irvin is the only defendant from the Northeast.

According to the affidavit, Irvin -- whose e-mail name is "gypsywisdom" -- told the undercover agent that he made a similar trip to Santo Domingo about 15 years ago and had "one of the best times of my life."

The arrests were made after an investigation by the Southern California Regional Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement Team, a multiagency child exploitation task force.

According to the affidavit:

After the FBI created an undercover travel company purporting to make arrangements for individuals interested in traveling to Mexico to engage in sex with minors, an undercover agent met Irvin and others on Nov. 13 at a NAMBLA conference in Florida.

The agent told them about the boat trip to Ensenada, about 70 miles south of San Diego.

"The beauty is we go by boat ... and avoid customs and inquiring eyes," the agent told them.

Irvin sent the agent an e-mail on Dec. 31 stating: "I just keep smiling. Really looking forward to the trip. Went to Santo Domingo several years ago with someone from the conference and had one great time. One of the best times of my life. ... I am so happy I was invited along."

Irvin told the agent in another e-mail that he attended NAMBLA conventions in the late 1980s and got away from it because, as a teacher, he "didn't need the problems."

When asked what age of teens he preferred in Ensenada, Irvin sent an e-mail saying, "Uhm I would say 14 to, oh around 14." In another e-mail, he stated: "12 to 18, anywhere in there."

Irvin, who told undercover agents he lives with a woman, also sent an e-mail saying he is interested in boys for "light sex."

He arrived in Los Angeles on Friday, stayed at a hotel in nearby Marina del Rey and went the next morning to a boat in a local marina, where he was arrested when he put his luggage on the craft.

Irvin, who started out as a substitute teacher in the district in 1994, has received half pay since going on a study sabbatical on Feb. 2, said Pittsburgh Public Schools spokeswoman Pat Crawford.

"We are going to cooperate fully with the investigation," Crawford said. "It's very important to us. It's very important to the future of Pittsburgh Public Schools."

School police Chief Robert Fadzen said there is "absolutely no indication" that any students from the school district are involved.

FBI agents searched Irvin's home on Saturday.

School board member Jean Fink, whose district includes Carrick, said: "The FBI wanted to look in his computer for child pornography and that kind of stuff."

Fink said Irvin has been at Carrick High School for about a year, adding, "I know he got good evaluations."

J. Kaye Cupples, executive director of the Pittsburgh Public Schools Program for Students with Exceptionalities, declined to comment.

Carrick Principal Luke Holzen also would not comment.

"It's a total shock," Shrager said. "I hope (the allegations are) not true."

Craig Poljak, 27, a 1995 graduate of Carrick, said he, his girlfriend and her 5-year-old son live near the high school.

"It's very disturbing," Poljak said. "Who knows what could happen with these kids? That really irritates me."