Parents Express Shock at Brooklyn School Porn Case

February 8, 2012 Brooklyn Eagle Staff
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Karen Matthews

Associated Press

BROOKLYN (AP) — Parents expressed shock, concern and revulsion as they dropped off students Wednesday at a Brooklyn elementary school where a teacher’s aide is accused of making videos of himself sexually exploiting children.

FBI agents arrested Taleek Brooks, 40, on Monday night after an investigation uncovered the videos on a computer seized from his home last month, authorities said.

A criminal complaint mentioned two alleged victims — both believed by the federal authorities to be current or former students at the Weeksville School, where Brooks had worked since 1995. The FBI held out the possibility there could be more student victims and was encouraging parents to come forward if they have information. Agents were expected to be at the school on Wednesday to pursue leads.

“He seemed nice. He seemed genuine. You would never think that it was him,” Thea Williams said as she delivered her 7-year-old daughter to the school building, its bricks brightly adorned with a cheerful mural of a rainbow, balloons and flowers.

When she picked up the first-grader on Tuesday, “I grilled her,” Williams said. “I asked her had she ever been alone with him. She said no.”

She also talked to her 12-year-old son, who had graduated from the same school. He told her, “No, he never would have gotten that far with me.”

“It’s disgusting; it’s disgusting,” said Charmaine Maxwell as she dropped off her 6-year-old grandson.

“I can’t believe it,” Maxwell said. “Everyone believed he was such a nice person.”

Brooks already had been hit with child pornography charges a month ago. On Tuesday, a federal judge revoked his bail amid new allegations.

Prosecutors said evidence included videos of Brooks spanking one naked child and fondling another in a classroom. Previously, investigators had suspected him only of trading child pornography, not producing it.

Brooks’ lawyer and relatives declined to comment.

Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott met with about 20 parents on Wednesday, expressing his support. Afterward, he spoke outside the school, reiterating that everyone who works there has been properly vetted and that the FBI is investigating.

“Parents will be asking questions. They should be asking questions,” Walcott said.

“As chancellor, and as a father, I am horrified and disgusted at the charges we learned of today from the FBI,” Walcott said in a statement Tuesday after meeting with the staff and PTA president. “Our paramount concern is for the safety of our students, and we are cooperating fully with the federal authorities as they continue their investigation.”

The city Department of Education first hired Brooks for a summer job in 1991, when he was fingerprinted and passed a background check. He was given a full-time job as a teacher’s aide with the school system in 1993.

Brooks also had worked with children at an after-school program affiliated with Weeksville. Program director Christa McCarthy-Miller said that the defendant had passed routine background checks and that she wasn’t aware of any previous complaints against him.

As a “group leader” for about 14 children, Brooks’ job was to encourage them to make “positive life choices,” McCarthy-Miller said.

“We’re obviously very saddened by this,” she said.

The case calls to mind the unfolding scandal at a Los Angeles elementary school in which a teacher is suspected of blindfolding and molesting children in his classroom, though that case is different in the nature of the accusations.

According to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday, an examination of a home computer and two external hard drives seized from Brooks uncovered a stash of self-produced child porn.

The videos included two taken in a school classroom, one of Brooks touching a child’s genitals and another of him spanking a naked child, the complaint says. Investigators believe they were shot sometime between January 2008 and January 2011.

A letter sent to parents alerted to them to the accusations against Brooks, saying that “these incidents may have occurred on school grounds.” It advised families to call an FBI tip line if they had information about the case.

A previous complaint had accused Brooks of sending pornographic photos and videos of children to an undercover agent he met online. The complaint says one of the images was of a man having sex with a boy who appeared to be about 10.

Following the exchange, FBI agents searched Brooks’ home on Jan. 13. The complaint alleges that during the search, Brooks “admitted that he had been downloading and sharing child pornography for approximately seven years.” He also “indicated that he had collected and saved over 1,000 digital files on his computer containing child pornography,” the complaint adds.

If convicted of producing child porn, Brooks faces a minimum 15 years in prison.

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Associated Press Writer Tom Hays contributed to this report.

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