A disgraced Tennessee middle school teacher wept after receiving a four-year prison term for installing a camera in a girl’s locker room and recording one student’s skirt.
Christopher Schroll, 33, a former 8th-grade science teacher and soccer coach at Cleveland Middle School, pled guilty to attempted aggravated unauthorized photography of a minor in a Bradley County courthouse on Monday, WTVC reports.
Schroll was arrested in March 2022 after students complained about finding a camera in the locker room.
The stalker told Cleveland Police officers that he purchased a DivineEagle Spy Camera from Amazon and installed it in the girl’s locker area after receiving “complaints” about students being “bullied and harassed,” according to News Channel 9.
He informed investigators that he would take the footage home every day and keep it on his personal computer for “review.”
However, school administrators claim they never received bullying complaints and that Schroll never told them of any events.
His covert recording of kids lasted two days, and 30 female minors were caught on camera, including several who were changing, according to investigators.
According to the outlet, police had to search through about four million photographs on an SD card attached to the concealed recording equipment.
Detectives also claim to have discovered a deleted video of a student’s skirt on one of his devices.
When he was arrested, parents of Cleveland Middle School kids were immediately informed of the teacher’s reported unsettling behavior.
Before his sentencing on Monday, Schroll was forced to listen to numerous families of the young victims describe how his vile deeds damaged their lives.
“She didn’t have words for what happened at school that day because she didn’t know people could do bad things,” one teary-eyed unnamed parent told the court. “She questioned me, ‘Why, Momma? “I trusted him!”
“I’m asking you to give justice to my daughter and all the other daughters in this case because they have not seen that yet for these girls — and for you to understand the impact it has had on our children and how it has changed their lives in how they handle dealing with other teachers, how it affects them in school, and how it affects their personal lives,” a different mom said.
Dr. Michael Adler, a sex offender counselor, testified in Schroll’s defense at his trial that the disgraced educator should receive therapy rather than jail time, according to WTVC.
Nonetheless, parents claimed that since his arrest, he has been seen at the girl’s soccer practice, and his presence in the community is worrisome.
Schroll also addressed this at Monday’s sentencing session, when he apologized to the victims and their families through tears.
“I’m extremely sorry to the parents and their children. I understand you put a lot of faith in me, and all I can say is I’m sorry,” he said, confronting the parents in court.
Schroll will also be required to register as a sexual offender.
