Special Ed Teacher Pleads Guilty to Child Porn Charge

A special education teacher at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School will be sentenced to no more than six and half years in prison on a federal charge of possessing child pornography, according to the terms of a plea agreement.

The Associated Press reports Peter Flynn, 61, of Silver Spring was arrested in January 2015. The minimum amount of time he could serve is two years. He will be sentenced in October.

Prosecutors told The Washington Post that Flynn had more than 28,000 pornographic images of children and 795 videos on two computers at his home. None of the images on Flynn’s computers were of students at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, and he did not use school computers to house the material, authorities said.

The original indictment alleged Flynn distributed child pornography on April 3, 2014 and possessed it on Sept. 30, 2014. The distribution charge was dropped in the agreement.

When the Montgomery County Public School system learned of the charges in September, WUSA TV reports that Flynn was removed from the classroom and put on administrative leave. There is no indication any B-CC students were involved.

Montgomery County Public Schools spokesperson Dana Tofig gave the TV station a statement that read, in part:

“The allegations against him in this case are not related to his job. … As soon as we were notified that an indictment had been handed down, the principal notified the community as quickly as possible.”

The district said Flynn began in MCPS in May 1978 as a substitute teacher’s assistant. He was hired as a special education paraeducator at B-CC in 1979 and in 1980 became a special education teacher at B-CC and worked there until September.