Hockaday School teacher arrested for child porn
DALLAS - A preschool teacher at Dallas’ Hockaday School for girls was arrested for allegedly paying for child porn.
According to a letter from the school, Jason Baldwin was fired from his job in Hockaday’s Child Development Center after being arrested on charges related to online child exploitation.
Federal investigators learned about 28-year-old Baldwin while searching through the transaction history of a convicted sex offender from Philadelphia who was allegedly selling child porn, according to a United States District Court criminal complaint.
Baldwin is accused of using his Kik Messenger account to contact the seller on multiple occasions between October 2019 and January 2020.
He allegedly requested photo and video files that contained young boys engaged in sex acts. He then paid for the files using a PayPal account associated with his name and the Hockaday School’s address, the court document states.
Investigators also determined several of the IP addresses connected to the Kik and PayPal accounts matched IP addresses associated with both Baldwin’s email address and Hockaday.org.
When law enforcement officials went to Baldwin’s Dallas home with a search warrant in late July, the court document states he admitted to the crime and said he had been paying for child porn for about eight years.
“We remain grateful that the FBI has shared with us that no current or former Hockaday students are involved in the allegations about Mr. Baldwin’s online misconduct that led to his arrest,” the Hockaday School said in the letter to parents.
He has been a teacher at the school since 2014 and passed all criminal background checks, the school said.