Though the 14 students who were photographed were clothed, the criminal complaint filed by state trooper Gregory Allen indicated that Gaspare Gambino's collection of photos included close-up shots of breasts and "areas under skirts and dresses."
— Katie Berlin (@katieberlintv) January 10, 2018
Gambino had been suspended from his job since September 2017 after a student in his class made the discovery and informed a school administrator. An investigation into the matter was soon launched by state police and the Wayne Highlands School District.
According to the Times-Tribune, the 14-year-old student found the pictures after Gambino let him borrow his school-issued iPad to complete an assignment. After the student finished the assignment, he tried to log into his Google Drive to work on a project for a different class.
This was when that student discovered Gambino's extracurricular activities. Unsure of what to do, he showed the photos to fellow classmates and asked them how he should inform school administrators. Officials ultimately found out about the images at the end of the school day, but by this time Gambino had already left work for the day.
But Gambino didn't take the iPad home with him and district officials took custody of it.
With the 34-year-old instructor suspended, investigators quickly worked on securing a search warrant to obtain access to Gambino's Google Drive. Once secured, officials found lewd photos of at least 14 different female students, some of which were taken from the teacher's desk during class.
The total number of photos that Gambino snapped have yet to be disclosed by investigators.
"For the rest of their lives, they'll remember this. This won't go away," Kelly Utegg, a parent with kids at the school, told WNEP. "Hopefully the parents will start therapy for them. Because it will be something they're going to think about. Here's a teacher they trusted, an adult they trusted. What are they going to think about men from now on?"
Another parent described the ordeal as "scary."
"Scared, scared," Greg Tagle told the station. "I have two daughters in the school, one in middle, one in high school. Just because this teacher was taking pictures of girls he found attractive is scary."
Gambino, who was working as a Spanish teacher in the school district, is being held at the Wayne County Jail. He has a hearing scheduled for January 17.
