Worcester Public School Employee Arrested on Child Pornography Charges

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Friday, September 18, 2015

Patrick Sargent, GoLocalWorcester Contributor

On September 2, members of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC) which include Worcester Police Detectives, Massachusetts State Police Computer Crimes Unit, FBI and Homeland Security searched an apartment on Sterling Street as part of a child pornography investigation.

Alexander Johnson, 22, 43 Sterling Street, Apartment 1, Worcester, was charged with Possession of Child Pornography.

According to Worcester Public Schools (WPS) records, Johnson was employed by the city as a district-wide cafeteria helper substitute.  He was officially hired on April 3, 2014.

Johnson had been an employee with WPS for a year and had previously passed a CORI check.

At Johnson's apartment, the task force investigators found and seized several computers and memory drives with files containing child pornography. Johnson was interviewed about the files and websites and following the interview was immediately placed under arrest.

According to WPS, the investigation didn’t indicate any of Johnson’s action involved WPS students.

As of September 3, Johnson was to receive a notice of suspension from WPS Human Resources as soon as it could be personally delivered to Johnson.

In a communication from the Superintendent’s office on September 3, Dr. Melinda Boone wrote, “Under no circumstances will the employee be working in any of our schools in the near future. While we do not suspect any actions related to the students, we will be initiating an investigation on behalf of WPS.”

The email from Dr. Boone went on further to say, “At this time, the media has not reported that this gentleman was employed by WPS and we hope that it does not.”

Requests for comment from Dr.Boone's office were not immediately returned.

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