Harlem Teacher Arrested For Sexting Students, Prosecutors Say

HARLEM, NY — A teacher is facing charges for sending pornographic images to students at the Harlem charter school where he worked and propositioning the underage girls for nude photographs and sexual acts, according to a criminal complaint from the Manhattan District Attorney's office.

Jeffery Bryant, 25, was arrested last week and charged with five counts of first-degree disseminating indecent material to minors — a felony — and four counts of endangering the welfare of a child. He is accused of sending pornographic images of himself to four underage girls who were students at Democracy Prep Endurance Middle School, where he worked since August 2018.

The teacher began sexting students in November of 2018 and the behavior continued until he was fired in late March, according to a criminal complaint. Messages that Bryant sent to students included videos of him having sex with an unknown woman, photographs of his penis, a video of Bryant inserting an object in his anus and propositions to the students for them to send him nude photographs in return, according to the complaint. The teacher asked one student if she would engage in a threesome with him and his partner, the complaint reads.

Girls messaged by Bryant were born in 2004 and 2005, which means they could be as young as 13. The criminal complaint did not identify any of the victims.

Democracy Prep said that Bryant passed a criminal background check when he was hired.

"As soon as we heard from one of our students about an inappropriate text communication last Tuesday, we brought Bryant into our Network Office, fired him immediately and then turned him over to the police who took him away in handcuffs on Tuesday night," a Democracy Prep spokesperson said in a statement.

Bryant appeared in court on March 27 and is being held on $50,000 bail, according to court records. Prosecutors requested bail to be set at $250,000, according to a spokesperson from the DA's office. Bryant is scheduled to appear in court again on Monday, April 1.