Teacher Who Took Porn Photos In Toms River Classroom Sentenced

TOMS RIVER, NJ — A Toms River intermediate school teacher who took photos of himself masturbating in his classroom and sent pornographic photos of himself to a student has been sentenced to jail and must register as a sex offender, the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office announced Friday.

Kyle Banner, 49, of Brick Township, was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Guy P. Ryan to 180 days in the Ocean County Jail and parole supervision for life for his guilty plea to three counts of endangering the welfare of a child, Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said.

Banner pleaded guilty on Nov. 6 before Ryan, who also ordered him to forfeit his teaching license and barred him from any public employment in the future. He must register under the conditions of Megan's Law and will be barred from any future contact with his victims, Billhimer said.

Law enforcement was notified April 23, 2023, by Toms River Regional Schools administrators after the administrators were alerted that Banner, a 23-year history teacher at Toms River Intermediate North, had posted sexually explicit photographs of himself to his public Twitter profile.

On April 24, 2023, Banner was suspended without pay from his Toms River teaching position. He also was a professor at Ocean County College and was suspended from that position as well.

Banner later was fired from both positions.

He surrendered himself to the Toms River Police Department on May 23, 2023 and was taken to the Ocean County Jail, then subsequently released as a consequence of New Jersey Bail Reform.

Investigators determined that students had seen the sexually explicit photos by looking at his public Twitter profile, where Banner posted numerous photos of his exposed genitals that he had taken in his classroom at Intermediate North. He also posted photos that were taken in his classroom at Ocean County College, where he had been teaching since at least 2010, according to comments on the website Rate My Professor.

Read more: Toms River Teacher's Students Saw His Porn On Twitter: Prosecutor

Banner told his middle-school students to follow him on his social media accounts, authorities said. One student who spoke with investigators said Banner asked for his Snapchat account and began sending him messages, including a photo of Banner shirtless, wearing only boxers — along with bringing him food and hugging him, all of which the student told authorities made him uncomfortable.

Banner had multiple social media accounts on platforms including Twitter, Snapchat, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Spotify, along with an Only Fans account and an account on a dating site. He regularly interacted with his students on TikTok, cooked and brought food to them in school and encouraged him to send him direct messages, Patch found in a review of the TikTok account. Read more: District Angry Over Toms River Teacher's Alleged Porn Photos In School