Harriton High School teacher arrested on child pornography charges

Federal authorities accused a Harriton High School English teacher on Thursday of posing as a teenager online to solicit sexually explicit videos from an underage girl through social media accounts he allegedly used while at the Lower Merion school.

Jeremy Schobel, 31, faces charges including enticing a minor to engage in illicit conduct and manufacturing child pornography — the latter of which carries a 15-year mandatory minimum prison sentence. He was arrested by the FBI on Wednesday.

While the charges span a time frame of Dec. 24 through March 29, Schobel told FBI agents that he’d been posing as an underage girl in online conversations for years. He told investigators he’d previously sought illicit photos and videos from “many underage girls” between the ages of 16 and 18, according to the court papers filed in connection with his arrest.

A lawyer for Schobel, Joseph D’Andrea, declined to comment Thursday because he had not yet had an opportunity to fully review details of the case.

The Lower Merion School District said Thursday that Schobel had been suspended, and his access to district devices and networks had been terminated.

Schobel, who was hired by the district in the 2021-22 school year, “had no prior record that would have precluded his hiring,” spokesperson Amy Buckman said in a letter to families. Schobel previously was an English teacher and girls’ softball coach at Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts, according to his 2018 wedding announcement.

“While we understand this is an ongoing investigation, at this time, LMSD is not aware of any inappropriate interactions between Mr. Schobel and LMSD students,” Buckman said. “Additionally, the district had not received any complaints or concerns from students or staff regarding his conduct in school.”

Buckman noted that the FBI “alleges that Mr. Schobel may have engaged in these activities during working hours using an IP address associated with LMSD.”

The affidavit traces the investigation into Schobel to a tip made in November to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children by Yubo, a French social networking app. Yubo reported that a user with the name “sophiavan423″ appeared to be “grooming” minors, looking for relationships and redirecting conversations to Snapchat.

The user — whose profile read “I like girls who like girls why r all of u into crystals 17 philly fems!” — claimed to be 17. But a photograph of an adult male was also associated with the account.

Yubo reported that an account named “jillmoreno” had been accessed with the same phone number, according to the affidavit. Tracking IP addresses, investigators traced the accounts to Schobel and found Snapchat accounts with the same names, with GPS data matching Harriton High School.

On Dec. 27, Schobel, using the jillmoreno Snapchat account, asked a user who said she was 16 to send him explicit images and videos, according to the affidavit. The conversation continued on Dec. 28.

“Omfg….I love u….Literally,” Schobel wrote in response to one explicit video, according to the affidavit.

A federal judge granted a search warrant on June 2, and FBI agents searched Schobel’s home Wednesday. During the search, Schobel was taken to the Philadelphia Police Department, where he spoke with agents and admitted creating the fake profiles, according to the affidavit.

Schobel remains in custody after a brief initial appearance Thursday in federal court.

A detention hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, when prosecutors are expected to ask that he be detained until trial.

Buckman said counselors at Harriton High School would be available to students and staff “who need support in light of this disturbing news.”