A Brooklyn teacher was held without bail on Wednesday after he was charged with communicating with dozens of minors he allegedly targeted on Facebook and asking them for sexually explicit photos and videos, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.
Jonathan Deutsch, who taught at the Leon M. Goldstein High School for the Sciences in Manhattan Beach was indicted on five counts of sexual exploitation of a child.
Since January 2017, Deutsch, 34, allegedly messaged hundreds of people on Facebook who appeared to be minors in their profile photos and told them he worked as a teacher, according to prosecutors. He communicated with at least 45 of them, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors said they identified at least four minors — age 10 to 16 — from whom Deutsch received sexually explicit videos or photos.
Deutsch allegedly told the minors to perform sexually explicit acts in the photos and videos, and sent several similar photos that he said were of himself, prosecutors alleged.
He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison, if he is convicted on any of the five counts.
A request for comment from his attorney was not immediately returned.
Deutsch has not worked with kids since January of this year, according to the city’s Department of Education.
“These are extremely disturbing allegations, and Mr. Deutsch will remain reassigned away from students,” Doug Cohen, a spokesman, said in an email. “We will seek his removal from payroll and termination as soon as legally possible.”
