Treme school officials arrested for child porn

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Two members of the leadership team at a K-8 charter school in Treme were arrested Tuesday on allegations that they failed to alert authorities about their discovery of video clips allegedly showing a student being forced to perform oral sex on a group of her peers in a bathroom on campus earlier this year.

Authorities booked Nicole Kusmirek, the second-in-command at Success Preparatory Academy, and Shayla Shane — listed as the school's director of culture — on counts of possessing child pornography as well as failing to report child abuse despite being required to do so as educators.

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An attorney for both women, Nandi Campbell, said she believes her clients' actions during the case actually prevented children from being able to go on social media and widely share a video of teens acting inappropriately. She said there was no indication Kusmirek and Shane were under criminal investigation, and they were blindsided by the decision to arrest them. "For NOPD to charge these teachers with possession of pornography is the most obscene thing I've seen since I've been doing this work," said Campbell, adding that both women arrived in New Orleans years ago as part of the Teach for America program. "It's a declaration of war on teachers who are on the front lines of the school-to-prison pipeline we see in this city." Success' principal, Niloy Gangopadhyay, said in a statement that his school stood behind both Kusmirek and Shane and doesn't believe there was any "criminal intent or action on their part." "In our opinion, they took appropriate action and protected the interests of our school and the safety of those students," said the principal, adding that an internal investigation found no violations of procedure on behalf of the staffers.

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