Sanford Middle School teacher arrested on child porn charges

DEBARY, Fla. — A Sanford Middle School teacher was arrested at his DeBary home on eight counts of possession of child pornography Monday, according to authorities.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents said they went to James Stevens' home Monday morning after their cybercrimes unit identified the seventh-grade teacher as someone involved in trading child pornography.

Authorities said Stevens had an image in his cellphone of a young girl's legs. Agents confiscated computers and the cellphone from his home.

"The image appears to be of a young female sitting at her desk, and basically it shows her legs, her leg area. We do not know when or where that photograph was actually taken," said FDLE Special Agent Tony Rodriguez.

Stevens is an honored teacher of advanced math courses at Sanford Middle School, said officials.

Investigators said Stevens runs a math camp called "Stevens Camp" during the summer.

School officials said Stevens was suspended with pay until the school board can have a hearing during a regular board meeting.

WFTV found out that Stevens is married and has children.

At least one person in his neighborhood said she wasn't surprised at all.

"It was literally immediately, as soon as she said middle school math teacher, I knew exactly," said a neighbor who did not want to be identified.

She said she had a run-in with Stevens eight years ago.

"About 11:30 in (the) evening I had a neighbor call me and tell me that there was a gentleman in my back yard," the neighbor said.

"He was just watching through the back yard, the sliding glass door."

The mother of two was concerned for herself and her two small daughters so she called 911, but was upset with the deputy when he didn't fill out an incident report.

"He just took his picture and identification for future reference if anything should ever happen," the neighbor said.

She said she wants to know what happened to that picture and said she even talked to an investigator with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Monday.

"The fact that there was no incident report that kind of bothers me a little bit. Had there been an incident report, maybe they couldn't arrest him but at least it shows a history with the guy," she said.

Right around the time this woman said Stevens was looking through her window, he was also picked up for criminal mischief in another neighborhood but it was downgraded to trespassing.

FDLE hasn't confirmed they're questioning the mother about the incident.

WFTV