Middle school teacher arrested on possession of child pornography charges

Police line.
Police line. Photo credit Getty Images

A teacher at a middle school in Virginia was arrested last week after she allegedly had child sexual abuse content on her Snapchat, police said.

Kristine Knizner, a science teacher at Irving Middle School in Springfield, was arrested on child pornography charges by Fairfax County police.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children alerted the department on Tuesday that a Snapchat account associated with a Fairfax County IP address had been in possession of the material containing child sexual abuse.

Police then investigated the IP address, eventually connecting it to Knizner’s home in Springfield.

After identifying that it was her home, detectives carried out a search warrant and found that she was the only resident at the address.

Major Ed O’Carroll with the Fairfax County Police Department shared in a release that the arrest was made possible by forensic detectives and analysts.

“I greatly appreciate the work of our Major Crimes, Cyber and Forensics detectives and analysts. These crimes have no place in our society and certainly not here in Fairfax County,” O’Carroll said. “Since February, detectives have received 124 CyberTips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, like the one that led to this arrest. There is nothing more important than the safety of our children.”

According to police, several of the teacher’s social media applications had photos and videos of child pornography on them.

None of the victims appear to be any of Knizner’s students, according to police. Knizner has been charged with two counts of possession of child pornography and was taken to the Adult Detention Center.

She was released on a $2,000 unsecured bond.

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