Former Iowa music teacher accused of possessing and distributing child pornography

A retired Iowa teacher is scheduled to go to trial this summer after being charged with possessing and distributing child pornography.

Federal prosecutors have accused Glenn Arlen Sedlacek, who taught music for 31 years in the Marshalltown Community School District, of receiving visual depictions of minors "engaging in sexually explicit conduct" between March 2013 and May 2017, court records show. He is also accused of possessing and distributing child pornography on his computer in May 2017.

Sedlacek was indicted by a grand jury in December 2017 and is set to go to trial on June 4 in the U.S. District Court in Des Moines. But few in town, including local school officials, were aware of the charges until a local television station broke the story this week.

"I don't think there was any awareness, to my knowledge, within the district or even our local newspaper," Marshalltown Superintendent Theron Schutte told the Des Moines Register on Saturday. "We had no knowledge and had not been contacted about this matter until the news station contacted us."

Sedlacek retired in good standing at the end of the 2009-2010 school year, the superintendent said. At the time, he was an instrumental music teacher at the district's intermediate school and high school.

"It's obviously disappointing and concerning when any member of our community is charged with such allegations," Schutte said. "To the best of our knowledge, this does not involve current or former students."

That's because of the timeline in court records, Schutte said, which point to the years after the teacher left the district. And the charges do not accuse Sedlacek of producing child pornography — only of possessing and distributing it.

Previously:

• Former Iowa AAU coach Greg Stephen pleads not guilty in child porn case
• Former Davenport teacher gets 15 years in child porn case
• Ex-Iowa teacher charged in child sex case arrested again on porn charges

Schutte, who has been Marshalltown's superintendent for two years, said he had no personal or professional knowledge of Sedlacek. The superintendent attended Marshalltown schools as a child and said Sedlacek likely started teaching while he was in high school.

"But I don't have any knowledge of him," Schutte said. "There’s been a lot of turnover in the district, so there’s just really hardly anybody within my office that would even know who this individual is. Although in a district of our size, obviously, there would be some staff members and community members who would have worked with him."

Sedlacek was released on bond on January 11, court records indicate. The conditions of his bond bar him from having any contact with minors or using any device connected to the internet without prior authorization.

Information on the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners website indicates Sedlacek is licensed to teach music to students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

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