A middle school band teacher with Judson ISD is on leave and behind bars after San Antonio police found child pornography files on his Snapchat account.
Mark Mallow, 26, was taken into custody on Wednesday, Aug. 31, for possession of child pornography, a third-degree felony, and promotion of child pornography, a second-degree felony.
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According to an arrest affidavit, Mallow uploaded five files of child pornography to Snapchat -- four photos and one video.
On April 16, the photo-sharing platform filed a report of the explicit media files with The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).
Authorities were also made aware of the explicit files and traced the the Snapchat account to its alleged owner, Mallow. They were able to track the files in the “Memories” section of the app.
During the investigation, a chat thread was found on Snapchat between Mallow and another user, according to an affidavit.
One of them said, “We should not have sent that material on here my dude. I’m worried.”
Mallow is a teacher at Woodlake Hills Middle School in the Judson Independent School District.
On Wednesday afternoon, Judson ISD issued this statement to KSAT confirming Mallow’s arrest, saying he’s since been placed on leave:
“This morning, we were notified by the Office of the Attorney General that an employee was detained at their home for possession of child pornography. The safety of our students is our top priority and we take situations like this very seriously. The employee was immediately placed on administrative leave and we are working diligently with the office of the Texas Attorney General, who is handling the case. School administration have notified families of this arrest. This is an open investigation and if there is more information to provide, we will share it as appropriate. We can confirm that the employee that was placed on leave is Mark Mallow.”
Mallow is currently being held in the Bexar County Jail and his bond is set at $180,000 for both charges combined, court records show.