A Connecticut teacher was arrested after he was caught pleasuring himself on school grounds with students nearby, the New York Daily News reported.
Michael Luecke, a substitute teacher at Westhill High School in Stamford, was caught on surveillance cameras as he masturbated in a stairwell while watching students walk by. Police arrested Luecke, 71, on Wednesday after a teacher's assistant caught him in the act that morning.
"The principle took immediate action and called the police," Sharon Beadle, Stamford Public Schools public affairs officer, told the Daily News.
Police charged Luecke with public indecency, risk of injury to a minor and breach of the peace, according to the Daily News. He was held on $25,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday for arraignment.
"He had a clean criminal history and he's not on any sexual registry," Lieutenant Diedrich Hohn told the Daily News.
When the teaching assistant first came across Luecke she found him on the ground. The assistant thought Luecke was hurt, but when she approached him she realized his zipper was down and he was touching himself in an "aroused state," police told the Daily News.
Luecke ran to the classroom where he was scheduled to teach when the assistant began yelling for school authorities. Luecke was taken out of the classroom and detained in the main office.
A review of the school's surveillance video captured Luecke in the stairwell masturbating while six students walked past him, the Daily News reported. Police are ready to provide counseling for the students if necessary.
"When we review the video we need to work with the school to identify the kids that waked by," Hohn told the Daily News.
Substitute teachers for Stamford Public Schools are fingerprinted and are required to hand in references along with their application. The system then checks the person's background to see if they are listed as a sexual predator, the Daily News reported.
"All of that was done for that individual and his record was clean," Beadle told the Daily News. "He's worked with us since 2009 and there hasn't been another problem."
