Columbus teacher arrested for taking up-skirt videos and photos of students resigns

Detectives say Justin R. Foley admitted that he had been filming up-skirt-style videos for the last seven years while working at Columbus Alternative High School, including as recently as the week before his arrest.
Detectives say Justin R. Foley admitted that he had been filming up-skirt-style videos for the last seven years while working at Columbus Alternative High School, including as recently as the week before his arrest.

The Columbus Alternative High School teacher who was arrested last month for taking up-skirt videos and photos of female students resigned Wednesday — the day after the city school district's Board of Education voted unanimously to initiate his termination.

Columbus City school board voted on Tuesday its intention to begin formal action to terminate chemistry teacher Justin R. Foley's contract with the district. The resolution formally suspended Foley without pay effective Wednesday, and stated that formal action to fire him would take place at its Oct. 18 board meeting.

However, the district reported Wednesday afternoon that Foley, 47, had resigned, retroactively effective to Oct. 3.

More:Columbus Alternative HS teacher arrested for taking up-skirt videos of students, others

Foley was arrested Sept. 20 after admitting to having more than 5,000 images and more than 160 videos of child pornography on his cellphone and other electronic devices, according to Delaware County Common Pleas Court records. He was charged with one count of illegal use of a minor in nudity oriented material, with additional charges that could eventually be considered by a grand jury.

The investigation into Foley began after Delaware police received a tip Aug. 16 from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children regarding an image being uploaded online. That image was traced to an email address with the name "nastyboyreginald" and someone going by the name "Reginald Punnett," which was linked by investigators to Foley's home in Delaware.

Police received additional information from Google on Aug. 25 that ultimately resulted in the discovery of more than 5,000 images and 166 videos that were pornographic in nature and featured girls who appeared to be between the ages of 12 and 16.

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Detectives say Foley admitted that he had been filming up-skirt-style videos for the last seven years while working at Columbus Alternative High School, including as recently as the week before his arrest. Foley also reportedly admitted to taking videos in other places.

Court records said Foley had videos showing "females of various ages in department stores around the Columbus area, downtown Columbus public areas, near Ohio Wesleyan University, downtown Delaware areas and outside Conger Elementary School in Delaware."

After his arrest, Columbus City Schools' immediately suspended Foley, who had been with the district since 2013.

The district added that it has submitted an Educator Misconduct report with the Ohio Department of Education and "will provide ongoing support to ODE in their efforts to address Mr. Foley's licensure status and potential disciplinary action."

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus teacher who was arrested for taking up-skirt videos resigns