Police: North Penn High School teacher sent lewd photos to 17-year-old female student

TOWAMENCIN >> A North Penn High School teacher suspended before the start of the school year was taken into custody and arraigned Thursday afternoon on a first-degree misdemeanor corruption of minors charge after Towamencin detectives said he admitted sending a picture of his penis to a then-17-year-old female student via cell phone in August of 2013.

Todd Christopher Gibson, 29, of the 800 block of Gettysburg Drive in Lansdale, appeared briefly – while accompanied by his lawyer, Michael Drossner, and a family member – inside District Judge Harold Borek’s Lansdale courtroom for the arraignment and waived his right to a preliminary hearing, so the case now heads for trial in county court.

Towamencin police said that on June 11, detectives were contacted by North Penn High School administrators to look into allegations regarding Gibson – described in court documents as a history teacher and assistant coach for the school’s water polo team who had been employed by the North Penn School District since August of 2008 – and upon meeting with school officials, police were told that Gibson had allegedly used the cell phone photo messaging application Snapchat to send lewd photos of himself to a student at the school.

Another teacher reported to school administrators that the student had disclosed that Gibson had sent her the photos, and that she “talked about Gibson’s actions during a classroom discussion,” according to an affidavit of probable cause.

Police said they interviewed the student, who stated that from mid-July of 2013 to around Aug. 10, 2013, Gibson used Snapchat to send her “pictures of his face and body while also writing text in order to have a conversation,” and that the communications had started out “very friendly, with Gibson generally just saying hello.”

The Snapchat communication then progressed to Gibson asking the student what she was wearing, and asking her to come to his house, according to court documents, and when the student told Gibson that he would get caught, he allegedly responded that “he did not care,” documents state.

On Aug. 11 and Aug. 12 of 2013, police said, the student said that Gibson’s Snapchat messages to her were “sexual in nature” and that the messages included pictures of him undressing and in various states of nudity before he sent her a photo of his genitalia.

Around Aug. 17, the student told investigators, she began to get annoyed with Gibson sending her messages, so she told him that someone had found out about their communications, according to the affidavit. Gibson then allegedly told the girl that they had to stop messaging via Snapchat and they should “delete each other and pretend this never happened,” detectives said.

The student said that she and Gibson exchanged a total of approximately 100 messages, according to the affidavit, and stated that Gibson frequently asked her to come to his house – she said she knew that Gibson lived less than five minutes from her residence.

According to court documents, the girl said that she saved a screen shot of one of Gibson’s messages, but Gibson was notified by the Snapchat application that she had taken the screen shot and he told her to delete it – the student deleted the photo, according to police, and then asked Gibson if they could text each other rather than use Snapchat.

Investigators said they obtained a search warrant for all Snapchat records of communications between Gibson and the student and they were provided with those records on June 23. According to court documents, those records confirmed that 17 Snapchat communications were exchanged between Gibson and the student between Aug. 10 and Aug. 12 of 2013 – the time period during which the lewd photos and messages were allegedly sent.

On July 31, documents show, police were granted a search warrant for Gibson’s residence, and Gibson’s phone, laptop computer and tablet computer were all seized during the subsequent execution of the warrant for forensic analysis.

Police said Gibson later provided a voluntary statement admitting sending the photo of his penis to the girl, although investigators did not specify the date when they received that statement.

At Thursday’s arraignment, Borek set Gibson’s bail at $5,000 unsecured and he was permitted to leave court on his own accord. Gibson is scheduled to be formally arraigned on the misdemeanor charge in Norristown on Oct. 22.

On Thursday, the North Penn School District posted a statement on its website that said “an employee charged with corruption of minors” – the statement does not mention Gibson by name – “was suspended before the start of the school year.”

According to the statement, the employee “was hired in 2008 as a high school chemistry teacher and was also an assistant coach of the boys’ water polo team.”

When contacted Thursday afternoon for clarification whether Gibson taught chemistry or history, as court documents stated, district officials said only that the statement provided on the website was accurate and they did not comment further.

On Thursday, Gibson’s teacher profile on the North Penn High School website appeared to have been deleted, but a cached version of the page from Sept. 9 listed him as a chemistry teacher.

“Student safety is a top priority of the North Penn School District,” the district’s statement also reads. “Staff and students are commended for reporting and acting upon this serious issue. Pennsylvania law dictates that any individual found guilty of this offense would be prohibited from employment in either public or private schools in the Commonwealth.”

Reporter editor Ann Cornell contributed to this report.