Lower Merion teacher posed as teenage girl online to solicit nudes from students, feds say

A Lower Merion teacher charged last week in a child pornography case solicited explicit photos and videos from hundreds more teenage girls than originally thought — including at least one of his own students, federal authorities said Tuesday.

In the days since prosecutors first accused Jeremy Schobel — an English teacher at Harriton High School — of using fake social media profiles to persuade a 16-year-old to send him graphic images of herself, several students at his school have come forward to say that they, too, had been contacted by the fraudulent screen names Schobel used to target his victims, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Rotella said.

The FBI continues to investigate whether he persuaded any of them to send pornographic photos. But in a new court filing Tuesday, Rotella said explicit images from at least one Harriton student had been linked to Schobel’s Snapchat account.

“Schobel was adept at concealing his true identity, making it frighteningly easy to engage with his teenage victims and manipulate them into engaging in sexually explicit conduct for his deviant pleasure,” she wrote. “His predatory tactics demonstrate the true danger he poses to every child.”

The new allegations could significantly expand the case against Schobel, 31, who was arrested June 7 at his home in Philadelphia on charges of manufacturing child pornography and enticing a minor to engage in illicit conduct.

School district officials described prosecutors’ assertion that he’d targeted Harriton students as “extremely disturbing” and said the district had made counselors available on the campus to anyone affected by Schobel’s arrest.

“While Mr. Schobel remains innocent until proven guilty, the serious allegations against him indicate not only an egregious violation of Lower Merion School District policy, but also a horrifying violation of the trust of our students and families,” district spokesperson Amy Buckman said in a statement. “Our school counselors, psychologists and administrators continue to work to support our students, their families and the staff at Harriton High School during this extremely difficult time.”

During a brief appearance in federal court Tuesday, Schobel, heavily bearded and dressed in a dark green prison jumpsuit, said nothing as a U.S. magistrate judge ordered him detained until his trial.

According to court filings, Schobel first came to the attention of authorities in November, when the French social media site Yubo flagged suspicious activity on two linked accounts it believed were being used to groom teenage girls online.

The screen names — “jillmoreno131″ and “sophiavan423″ — purported to be those of a 17-year-old girl, but investigators say both were created by Schobel.

A subsequent review of activity on those accounts and Snapchat profiles using the same screen names uncovered contact with hundreds of girls between the ages of 16 and 18 dating back years, Rotella said in the filing Tuesday.

Some of that activity, the prosecutor said, has been traced back to Harriton High School’s IP address, suggesting that Schobel was using the accounts while on the school’s campus to communicate with potential victims during working hours.

“The evidence has revealed his criminal communications with hundreds of minor girls in thousands of pages of conversations, and the number continues to grow as the investigation progresses,” she wrote, adding: “The identification of other victims, including Harriton High School students is continuing.”

Schobel — who before arriving at Harriton in 2021 had worked as an English teacher and girls’ softball coach at Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts — admitted to investigators that he’d communicated with dozens of teens using the accounts. But he denied targeting any of his students.

His attorney, Joe D’Andrea, did not return calls for comment Tuesday on prosecutors’ new accusations to the contrary.

Buckman, the Lower Merion schools spokesperson, noted that any social media contact between Schobel and students at the school — explicit or not — would have violated district policy.

Teachers are prohibited from using personal email, text messaging, or social media accounts to communicate with students unless specifically authorized, she said. Employees are not permitted to follow or accept social media requests from students.

The district is encouraging any student who may have had contact with Schobel on social media to report those interactions to the FBI.