Administrator at posh private school arrested on child pornography charges

An administrator at Tower Hill School in Wilmington, Delaware, has been arrested on child pornography charges, the Delaware News Journal has reported.

What are the details?

Authorities say that police converged on the school Tuesday morning and focused an investigation on William Ushler, director of upper school admissions, after he was reported to have in his possession child pornography images.

Tower Hill Head of School Elizabeth Speers sent a letter out to families on Wednesday night notifying them of Ushler's arrest and subsequent firing and banning from campus.

Speers' letter noted that none of the children in the pictures were Tower Hill students.

"While we do not anticipate findings that indicate any member of the Tower Hill community has been harmed, our thoughts and prayers are with the children whose images are depicted and who are victims of such deplorable crimes," Speers said in the communication. "We aim to be fully transparent and plan to communicate if we are made aware of additional findings related to this matter."

Police quickly arrested Ushler and charged him with five counts of dealing in child pornography.

Ushler has worked with the school for the past 15 years.

In related news ...

This isn't the first time Tower Hill school has been rocked by sexual scandal: Former headmaster Christopher Wheeler was convicted on 25 counts of child pornography in 2015.

The Delaware Supreme Court, however, later overturned Wheeler's convictions on the basis that the search warrant was "unconstitutionally broad." The convictions, if upheld, would have put Wheeler behind bars for 50 years.

In her ruling, Supreme Court Justice Karen L. Valihura said that even though Wheeler was an “unsympathetic figure,” and noted that “sexual exploitation of children is a dreadful scourge in our society,” she had no choice in the ruling.

“There is always a temptation in criminal cases to let the end justify the means, but as guardians of the Constitution, we must resist that temptation,” she wrote in the 44-page ruling at the time.