Former Cleveland Middle teacher sentenced in locker room video case
The former Cleveland, Tennessee, middle school science teacher accused of videoing girls in the school locker room in
2022 has been sentenced to four years in prison, according to court records.
Christopher Dalton Schroll, 33, of Belmont Circle in Cleveland, was sentenced on a guilty plea to two counts of aggravated unlawful photographing of a minor and was given four years in prison Monday by Circuit Court Judge Sandra Donaghy, according to court documents. Schroll will be released on three years, seven months of supervised probation after he serves five months of his sentence behind bars.
Schroll was originally charged March 17, 2022, after a student found a hidden video camera in the girls’ locker room a couple of days earlier, according to case documents. Investigators found images of at least 30 girls on the camera.
According to the case affidavit filed by Cleveland police, authorities were notified March 15, 2022, of the discovery of what authorities described as a spy camera that looked similar to a mobile phone charger but contained a camera lens and a memory card.
Schroll told police during an interview in 2022 at the school that he purchased the camera on Amazon and put it in the girls’ locker room the morning of March 14, 2022, the document states.
“Mr. Schroll advised he did this because of complaints he was getting from females about being bullied and harassed,” the affidavit states. “Mr. Schroll also stated that he would get the camera at the end of each day and take it home to his personal desktop computer to review the footage.”
Cleveland Middle School Principal Nat Akiona and eighth grade Assistant Principal Scott Carroll told detectives Schroll never brought any bullying or harassment complaints to their attention, according to court documents.
Investigators determined Schroll reinstalled the camera in the girls’ locker room March 15, 2022, the affidavit states, and that was the day it was found by one of the girls.
Videos initially viewed on the camera included a view of the girls’ locker room and a student finding the camera, the affidavit states. Other images pulled from the camera showed multiple girls in the locker room including one girl taking off her shirt to reveal her sports bra and another can be seen changing pants.
“Based on the context of the images, it was obvious that the females in the locker room did not appear to know that they were being filmed,” the affidavit states.
Officers then watched school surveillance camera footage of the locker room area from the morning of March 14, 2022, according to the affidavit.
In the video, Schroll appears in the area of the girls’ locker room at 7:04 a.m. and 7:10 a.m., on March 15, 2022, investigators state in the affidavit. After the camera discovery, Cleveland City Schools officials worked with police to identify the girls in the images and then notified their families, investigators said at the time. After investigators determined the videotaping took place over two days, Schroll was charged with a second count.
According to Donaghy’s sentencing order, Schroll will be supervised under sex offender directives, must comply with sex offender laws and requirements of the sex offender registry, wear an ankle monitor for 90 days following his release from custody on supervised probation, specifically must have no contact with Champy’s Restaurant, Mouse Creek Soccer Complex or Cleveland High School or, less specifically, any other school system. An additional nocontact list will be submitted to the state board of probation and parole. He was given credit for time served in jail on March 15, 2022, and March 17, 2022.
Schroll, who remained free on a $10,000 bond until Monday, was booked into the Bradley County Jail on Monday night, records show.