BENTONVILLE — Investigators found pornographic images depicting children on a computer used by a substitute teacher who has worked at Bentonville High School.
Jacob Howard, 32, of 904 S.E. Moberly Lane in Bentonville was arrested Thursday by Benton County sheriff’s deputies after investigators found several sexually graphic images of underage girls on a laptop he used, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Investigators searched Howard’s home Wednesday and seized a laptop, according to the report. On Thursday, deputies seized a school district-owned laptop Howard had used, according to the report. Pornographic images also had been transferred from a CD and made available for download online, according to the affidavit.
Howard has a history of working in the Bentonville School District — first as an employee of the district, then as a substitute teacher, according to spokesman Paul Stolt. Howard worked for Sub Teach USA, a Paragould-based firm the district contracts with for substitute teachers. The district began using Sub Teach in 2013.
Sub Teach placed Howard in the district as a long-term substitute at Bentonville High School on Nov. 2, his most recent appointment.
“We cannot terminate him because he does not work for us,” Stolt said.
The school district asked Sub Teach to remove Howard from a list of substitutes.
“(Howard) was asked to not return as soon as we were given the directive by the Benton County Sheriff’s Department,” Stolt said.
Howard was arrested elsewhere, not on school grounds, Stolt said.
Staff at the school district did not know about the investigation until deputies notified them Thursday, Stolt said. The school computer was secured until it could be surrendered to deputies.
Laptops are assigned to every secondary classroom, Stolt said. Long term substitute teachers are given a guest login so they can connect to a laptop but cannot store documents on the district’s intranet.
It wasn’t clear from the affidavit which laptop computer had the pornographic images investigators found.
Howard substituted regularly for the district at various grade levels, including elementary through high school, Stolt said.
Before joining Sub Teach USA, Howard worked at Washington Junior High School from September 2006 to June 2007. He worked as an instructional assistant at Sugar Creek Elementary School from September 2008 to December 2010, when he resigned, Stolt said.
It is unclear if Howard has worked in any school districts other than Bentonville. A message left at Sub Teach on Friday afternoon was not returned.
The Rogers School District has no record of Howard having taught there, according to spokesman Ashley Siwiec.
Howard’s Facebook page lists him as a 2001 graduate of Bentonville High School and a 2013 graduate of Harding University with a master’s degree in teaching.
According to the Arkansas Department of Education’s Educator Licensure System, Howard was certified in May 2014 to teach social studies to grades seven through 12th.
The investigation into Howard began Oct. 11 during an online sweep by the Benton County Sheriff’s Office Cyber-Crime division.
Distributing, possessing or viewing child pornography is a felony and carries a three to 10-year jail sentence and maximum fine of $10,000.
Howard was being held Friday in the Benton County Jail with no bond set.
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated which computer investigators reported finding child pornography on. The error has been corrected.