Former LI High School Teacher Sentenced For Child Porn Charges

A former Massapequa High School teacher was sentenced today to five years in jail on child pornography charges.

Joseph Zanco, 45, of Massapequa, pleaded guilty last May to transporting child pornography. After his five-year sentence, he will have to serve seven years of supervised release and register as a sex offender. He will also not be allowed to have unsupervised contact with children.

“As a licensed teacher, Zanco had a mandatory obligation to report crimes against children, and today he was punished for doing just the opposite: perpetuating their victimization by his transportation and possession of child pornography,” said United States Attorney Richard Donoghue. “The protection of children will always be a priority of this Office.”

Starting in April 2018, Zanco began to upload hundreds of images of child pornography to a Google Drive account. Google flagged the uploads and notified law enforcement, who recovered the pornography from Zanco's account. Authorities also found additional images and videos of child pornography on Zanco's cell phone and computer.

Zanco was arrested in August 2018.

“Zanco, a man who was entrusted to teach our youth, violated that trust by engaging in the transmission and possession of child pornography,” stated Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent-in-Charge Peter Fitzhugh. “We expect our teachers to educate and care for our children and when one violates that position of trust by sharing these alarming depictions, HSI and our law enforcement partners will stop at nothing to put an end to the facilitation and creation of children being victimized. One of HSI’s priorities will continue to be centered around child exploitation investigations to protect our most innocent – our children."