A woman who taught at a Central Florida elementary school since December is facing federal charges in a child porn investigation.
Audra Mabel, 34, is accused of producing and distributing child pornography across state lines and the sexual exploitation of a child. Her ex-boyfriend, Justin Ritchie, 36, was arrested last week on a charge of sexual assault of a child in Seminole County.
Mabel taught kindergarten at Spring Lake Elementary School in Altamonte Springs.
Parents of those children were notified personally by the school district Friday about the arrest.
An arrest report talks about graphic and disturbing videos Mabel is accused of making.
Mabel was fired from her position after being hired full time by the Seminole County Public Schools.
When police searched Ritchie’s phone, they found 10 videos containing alleged child pornography, investigators said Mabel shot with her iPhone and then sent to Ritchie.
Mabel told investigators that she became involved with Ritchie around July 2017 and terminated the relationship in 2018 because he would not leave his wife.
Investigators said they found an additional sexually explicit video on Ritchies’ iPhone that Mabel allegedly produced inside the school where she worked as a first-grade teacher in Lansing, Michigan.
Investigators said the video shows Mabel putting the camera under her skirt and then videotaping the children in her classroom while having a conversation with them.
Although there is no evidence that Mabel did anything similar while teaching in Florida, the charges and the description of this video concerned school officials enough to terminate her and contact the parents of her students immediately.
“It's too early to know whether there were or there weren't (videos),” said Michael Lawrence with Seminole County Public Schools. “That's why we just want to take the precaution of making them aware and having those conversations with their students with their children.”
The school is telling parents to contact the U.S. attorney’s office in Tampa if they uncovered any questionable activity.
According to her resume, she has a master’s degree in education from the University of Florida and taught for a few years at Glen Springs Elementary in Gainesville.
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