Toms River ‘pervy teacher’ sentenced to jail for posting sex photos from his classroom
TOMS RIVER -- A Toms River intermediate schoolteacher who publicly posted sexually explicit photos of himself from his classroom was sentenced Friday to 180 days in jail and ordered to permanently forfeit his teaching license.
Superior Court Judge Guy P. Ryan imposed the sentence on Kyle Banner, 49, of Brick, who used the hashtag "pervy teacher'' in his social media posts of photographs depicting him engaging in sexual conduct with himself in his classroom at Toms River Intermediate School North.
Ryan ordered Banner to forfeit his teaching license and also banned him from any future public employment, according to Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer. The judge also placed Banner on lifetime parole supervision, ordered him to register as a sex offender under Megan's Law, and permanently barred him from having any contact with his victims, Billhimer said.
Banner pleaded guilty in November to three counts of child endangerment related to the conduct.
He was suspended without pay from his $87,095-a-year teaching position on April 24, a day after school administrators learned he had posted sexually explicit photographs of himself on his public Twitter profile.
An investigation by the prosecutor's special victims and high-tech crime units, Toms River detectives and the crime scene investigation unit of the Ocean County Sheriff's Office determined the photographs were taken in Banner's classroom in the intermediate school and that students had viewed them on his public Twitter profile, the prosecutor said.
In addition to numerous images of Banner engaging in sexual conduct in his classroom, the probe also revealed that he sent inappropriate photographs of himself to a student on SnapChat between October and December 2022, authorities said.
Banner, who also had taught at Ocean County College, was charged in the case on May 23 and subsequently suspended from his position at the college.
Ryan, who presided over a detention hearing for Banner last year, released the defendant from jail to await the outcome of the case, but noted then that he used hashtags such as "pervy teacher'' and "risky bulge'' in posting the sexually explicit photographs to his social media accounts and directing his young students to view them.
Some of the photos showed Banner "wearing devices or attachments to his male genitalia,'' with text references to "a high school student holding the key to that device,'' the judge said at the detention hearing on May 30.
Kimberly Carr, assistant Ocean County prosecutor, handled the case for the state.
She noted at the detention hearing that some of Banner's sexual photos on social media were accompanied by alarming quotes, such as "Get down on it right in my classroom; no one will know, boy.''
Banner's attorney did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Kathleen Hopkins, a reporter in New Jersey since 1985, covers crime, court cases, legal issues and just about every major murder trial to hit Monmouth and Ocean counties. Contact her at khopkins@app.com.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Toms River ‘pervy teacher’ sentenced to jail for classroom sex photos
