Posted on 12/23/2007 5:12:28 AM PST by csvset
Man Charged With 5 Counts Of Possession Of Child Porn
John Stelmack, 60, the principal at Scott Lake Elementary School in Lakeland, was arrested at his home, located at 5749 Deer Track Trail in Lakeland, and charged with five counts of possession of child pornography.
Stelmack was suspended from his job as principal by the Polk County School Board on Dec. 14 after an administrative investigation led to the seizure of a black briefcase that contained pornographic images from his office, sheriff's deputies said.
According to a Polk County sheriff's report, Stelmack took routine photographs of children in a school setting, including a 10-year-old who attended Scott Lake Elementary last year, and digitally superimposed their faces onto nude images. The identified girl's facial image was on four of the pictures, and another unidentified female child's face was placed on the body of another nude image, the report stated.
"The photographs that Stelmack manipulated into child pornography are graphic and repulsive," Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said. "To think that a school principal, someone who is entrusted with the safety and well-being of hundreds of school children, would do something like this is incomprehensible."
Stelmack is married and has two adult children. He came to Polk County from the New York state school system.
Detectives are serving a search warrant at his home and further charges may be filed against him depending on what is found, deputies said.
Stelmack was booked into the Polk County Jail on a $100,000 bond.
The Polk County Sheriff's Office said it has been conducting an investigation, which is ongoing, in cooperation with the Polk County School Board.
Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.
And, on the first day after Christmas vacation that school will be filled with students. What is the matter with these parents? Are they brain dead? Is it the free babysitting? Are they so financial strapped that they have no alternative?
Regarding those with the option to home or privately school:
We must remember that those who privately or home school have **ransomed** their kids from the government school. It is the government school who really owns the kids. If you pay extra, you can rescue them from the government indoctrination camp. The government, you see, will be kind enough to “lend-out” **their** children to private or home schools, but the progenitors ( parents) must pay extra.
Those who can’t **ransom** the children they have created must obey their government school masters. If they were to be so foolish to oppose them, armed police will soon be at the door. If they were to resist, the police will imprison them, and maybe even kill them ( if the progenitor were resistant enough). ( Real bullets in those guns on the hip!)
When are parents going to realize that they are all really parolees from the government school indoctrination camps. If they feel free it is only because they have been indoctrinated to believe that they are.
I’ll stipulate that this guy is plenty creepy.
But doesn’t it bother anybody else that they’re calling this “child porn” when in fact there was no child involved in creating pornography? Disturbing, yes, and worthy of dismissing him from being a school administrator. But criminal? Seems to me that to rise to criminality there should be a victim.
Can a painting be illegal, then?
>Is it the free babysitting?
Absolutely.
>Are they so financial strapped that they have no alternative?
There is always room in life for those things that we hold important to have and to hold.
Values? Certainly we cannot expect the products of the modern public schools to have any inkling of those.
We can only hope.
Yes, that would and should be illegal. He certainly can't claim they gave consent, (being minors).
I supposed a jury will see the images and decide if it's an " art form ".
If it were a consenting adult, I could care less, unless of course he's doing on the school's dime and property.
Yeah, I get that. I’m assuming that the images never left his possession. If he published images of someone without permission then, yes, there’s something actionable about that though it’s probably more of a civil matter than a criminal one.
But photoshop allows the creation and manipulation of images that are a total fiction. It’s a product of mere imagination not unlike a drawing or a painting. Let’s say it was a painting of a disturbing scene and the face bears an unmistakable resemblance to a real person.
That it may be the product of a disturbed mind is likely true, but I’m asking a different question: Can it be illegal?
Gee, Ramius - it is “child porn” with photographs of children’s faces (from his own school) imposed.
Your take on this really bothers me more.
principal!!
Oh didn't you learn we have rights when it comes to pervs wanting to take our children's pictures in public??? GRRR & s/
I thought it was all about the pervs rights and we had none.
Another walking example of why these creeps need to be put into a special place and never let out into the world again. Maybe Gitmo would work. They can exchange stories with the terrorists.
Lots of disgraced teachers and police officers come down to Florida for “a new start.” Many districts/departments down there are so desperate for recruits (and you think NYC is bad for that, just spend time in South and Central Florida) that they take anyone with a resume it seems.
What does this story have to do with homosexuals?
According to some we have none.
His own are adults?
Okay, so now we have this creep in Florida. We have the creep in Phoenix, the girls’ high school softball coach nailing her student(s?). Then the good looking female creep in FL on trial. And the list of about 37,000 teachers disciplined, many of whom were sexual offenders. So what to do?
I know. How ‘bout we get GLAAD to declare war on the Catholic Church again?
I know, my weird brother in law is a teacher in central FL and I live in south Florida.
OK...granted the principal is and has been disgusting. But this sheriff has to be dumber than dirt! To say it's "incomprehensible" has got to be the dumbest, stupidest statement ever made by a law enforcement official!
After all, this principal is the direct result of over 45 years of democrate led public money being dumped into the public school system.
And this idiot sheriff is surprised?
What a boob!!!
The strongest urge for humans is not the urge to procreate, it’s the drive to rationalize one’s own behavior.
You know what you’ll find in this case? That the vast majority of parents will still have their children attending that school the following monday morning. After all, its a “good” school and the perpetrator was caught. In reality, though, it’s the free babysitting services that keeps them coming back.
Conservatives often rail against “welfare queens” who will modify their behavior in order to preserve their welfare benefits. I myself have always been amazed at the lengths that people will go to preserve some subsidy that is worth maybe a few hundred dollars a month. It’s no different with middle and upper class families who will often make great moral compromises to justify their acceptance of subsidized day care.
Perhaps it is, which of course would be illegal, but the story doesn’t say that.
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