Former teacher convicted of posing as teen, asking for nude photos – NBC10 Philadelphia

A former Pennsylvania teacher who posed as a teenage girl on social media to view sexual images and videos of minors has been officially sentenced to 30 years in prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced.

Jeremy Schobel, 33, of Philadelphia, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge John F. Murphy to 30 years in prison and 20 years of supervised release after running an extensive catfishing scheme that exploited children.

Officials say Schobel, a former teacher at Harriton High School in Lower Merion Township and the High School of Creative and Performing Arts in Philadelphia, posed online as different girls for more than three years. They created elaborate, fake profiles to trick young victims into sending him sexually explicit images and videos of themselves.

The investigation initially began on November 14, 2022, when the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) received a tip from the social media app Yubo that a user linked to two accounts was “grooming” minors online while posing as a 17-year-old girl.

The user said they were looking for a “girl-to-girl relationship” and forwarded the conversation to the social media app Snapchat, the complaint said. Investigators later determined the user was an adult male they identified as Schobel.

According to investigators, Schobel also continued to pose as a girl on Snapchat and solicited nude photos and videos from an underage girl while repeatedly chatting with her on the app between Christmas Eve 2022 and March 29, 2023.

At the time, investigators learned that Schobel was an English teacher at Harriton High School.

On June 2, 2023, investigators obtained a federal search warrant for Schobel’s home. On June 7, members of the FBI Philadelphia Division’s Child Exploitation Task Force executed the search warrant and arrested Schobel.

During an interview with investigators, Schobel admitted that he had created fake profiles on Yubo and Snapchat to pose as teenage girls and solicit sexual photos from underage girls. Schobel said he had been committing similar crimes for years and had communicated with many teenage girls between the ages of 16 and 18.

Investigators said a search warrant executed for Schobel’s Snapchat accounts revealed hundreds of alleged underage victims and that Schobel had distributed and received thousands of pornographic images and videos.

In March, Schobel pleaded guilty to receiving child pornography and five counts of producing child pornography.

While Schobel denied targeting his students on Yubu and Snapchat, several students came forward after his arrest and accused him of contacting them through the social media apps, investigators said. One student accused Schobel of sending her pornographic images of a teenage girl he was impersonating, the criminal complaint said.

“As a teacher, Jeremy Schobel’s job was to develop young minds,” said U.S. Attorney Romero. “As a predator, however, he chose to deceive and sexually exploit underage girls online — often from his classroom. Today’s sentencing closes the book on Schobel’s decades of catfishing and provides a measure of justice for his victims. Protecting children from abuse will always be a top priority for my office and our partners at the FBI.”

Authorities say Schobel must register as a sex offender in Pennsylvania because of his conviction.

Resources for victims of sexual violence are available through the National Sexual Violence Resources Center and the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 800-656-4673.