Published: March 06, 2008 03:08 pm      

Former Rusk teacher indicted Tuesday on child porn charges

By Cristin Ross

cross@jacksonvilleprogress.com

The U.S. Attorney’s office announced Tuesday a federal grand jury indicted a former Rusk High School teacher charged with possessing and distributing child pornography.

Harold “Bo” Scallon Jr. was indicted for one count of possession of and one count of distribution of material involving the sexual exploitation of minors.

“At no point had any allegations against Bo Scallon ever been brought to me by any student, parents, faculty or staff member,” Rusk Independent School District Superintendent Jim Largent said Wednesday.

The indictment charges Scallon owned a personal computer — confiscated from his home during an investigation by the Longview Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation — containing sexually explicit material featuring minors and allegedly distributed sexually explicit material in August 2007.

Largent said federal investigators had confiscated a school computer in the fall of last year.

“When they brought it back to us, they told us there was nothing illegal or inappropriate on our computer,” Largent said. “They were very vague as to what the charges were and if I hadn’t seen it on the news last night, I wouldn’t have even known he’d been indicted.”

Scallon retired from teaching senior English at RISD, effective June 2002, but continued to teach under one-year contracts until April 2007. He had worked for the RISD for more than 28 years.

If he’s found guilty, Scallon could be sentenced to as many as 30 years in prison — a maximum of 20 years in prison for the distribution and a maximum of 10 years for the possession charge.