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Parents react after guidance counselor charged with child sex abuse materials
Parents in the Penn-Delco School District speak out after a middle school guidance counselor was hit with 17 charges for child sex abuse materials.
ASTON, Pa. - Some parents in the Penn Delco School District are not only upset about a middle school guidance counselor being charged with child sex abuse materials, but some are also upset about how the district handled the whole situation.
"How many other people are like this I just haven’t been caught yet that your kids are near every single day. It’s very scary," one parent expressed, reacting to the news that 46-year-old Kevin Siegal was arrested after being charged with 17 counts of child sex abuse materials.
Siegal, a guidance counselor at Northley Middle School for two decades as seen in a video posted to the Penn Delco School District's YouTube page earlier this year, was escorted out of the school on October 24th, after investigators say they found incriminating images on his home computer.
He was put on administrative leave and had no further contact with students.
Penn-Delco school counselor charged for child sex abuse materials: district
A local school district is alerting its staff and parents to a "serious matter" involving one of their employees.
"There’s no evidence of these charges that any child in the District has been harmed in any way. This is a case about an individual who is going online and downloading child pornography from the internet, and possessing it, and that is a crime both federally and in the state," said Delaware County DA Jack Stollsteimer.
Parents say they were told Friday when the charges came down against Siegal, and many told us they wished there had been more transparency when he was first put on leave by the school back in October, that he was under some kind of investigation.
"They should have sent something out the day it happened, and I’m sure they knew before, but they let it go," stated parent Joe McCall.
"They said they wanted to be transparent about it, but I feel like they were trying to keep it a little quiet until just recently," another parent added.
The solicitor of the district, Mike Puppio, says in part, "The Penn-Delco School District and Law Enforcement were required to balance the potential danger to the community that Siegel posed with the possible damage to the pending investigation if it were made public. Siegel’s access to District students was eliminated while the investigation concluded."
"I think they took every appropriate step, but there’s always going to be some delay in an investigation," the District Attorney commented.
DA Stollsteimer wants to stress that if anyone thinks their children might have had any inappropriate contact with Kevin Siegal over the years, to please contact his office immediately.
Siegal’s next hearing is set for December 5th. Bail was set at $100,000 cash.