Teacher And Youth Coach Arrested For Distributing Child Pornography
A San Diego teacher and youth coach was arrested for distributing child porn along with a Philadelphia teacher he met online.
While technological improvements making the world wide web more globally integrated than ever is often hailed as a positive, it is impossible to deny the plethora of harmful factors that it now imposes on society. One major area of concern is explicit sexual material — specifically child pornography. It is being distributed more than ever before across the internet, and even more concerning is the fact that many of the perpetrators found guilty of dealing with this are authoritative figures from schools. In a recent case, a San Diego teacher and youth coach was recently arrested and charged for his role in possessing and distributing childing pornography.
According to reports from The San Diego Tribune, 30-year-old Daniel Zachary Dasko was arrested on July 13th by FBI agents. He was a San Diego teacher – aid and substitute to be exact – and also a youth hockey coach. Making the matter even more disturbing, not only did he engage in this illegal act by extorting online children, but also ones he knew personally, all with the help of two other men – one of which was also a teacher from Philadelphia.
Online records confirm that the San Diego teacher was employed by the North Country school district since 2018, where he taught children in at least six different elementary schools. After being arraigned in court last week, he pleaded not guilty and is ordered to remain detained pending his trial. Criminal details about the investigation that led to his arrest paint a disturbing picture laying out how he and his cohorts obtained the child pornography.
Allegedly, the San Diego teacher communicated with the Philadelphia teacher and another man from New York, working together to collect and share explicit images and videos of children. Dasko posed online to the other men under the name “Mr. Pickles” which he has admitted to authorities was him. In one obtained message, Dasko asked the Philadelphia teacher if he had ever acted out sexual activities with “younger boys.” He and the other teacher would send the New Yorker information regarding social media accounts of minor males that they believed the man would be able to persuade to furnish sexually explicit material to them.
In some instances, the men would pose as younger girls on social media in an attempt to obtain explicit material from minor boys. On one of the last reported occasions, the San Diego teacher sent out sexual images of a boy he met on social media, and another he claims he knew personally. It remains unclear for now whether or not the personal acquaintance was that of either a student or a minor he coached.
While the investigation is still underway, FBI agents have raided the San Diego teacher’s home and confiscated multiple devices that will be combed for further evidence in his case. Unfortunately, Dasko marks another notch in the perpetually increasing cases of sexual crimes against students that have made history just in the first half of 2022. As of June 30th, more than 181 teachers had already been arrested. It’s a disturbing, growing trend in public education, that is pushing the movement of families seeking alternative schooling options.
