A teaching assistant at an Anne Arundel County, Maryland, school for children with special needs has been arrested on child pornography charges.
Stephen Michael Maceiko, 48, of Hanover, is an employee at the Ruth Parker Eason School in Glen Burnie, a school for students ages 3 to 21 years old who have moderate to severe disabilities.
Maceiko is charged with five counts of promotion/distribution of child pornography and 13 counts of possession of child pornography that includes images and videos, Anne Arundel County police said in a news release. He is being held without bond.
“We are sickened by the charges against this staff member, and we took immediate action to remove him from any position in which he would have contact with children, as soon as we received the first allegation,” Anne Arundel County Public Schools spokesman Bob Mosier said in an email.
Maceiko was arrested Tuesday, but the investigation has been underway since May 9.
Detectives have no knowledge of any Ruth Parker Eason School students being depicted in materials that police said belong to Maceiko.
“The staff at Ruth Eason is a caring and passionate group of people who do incredible things every day for the students they serve, and will continue to do so,” Mosier said. “As a school system, we will do everything we can to assist them in that endeavor.”
While Mosier said that Maceiko is entitled to due process, the system intends to take action with regard to his employment status as soon as administratively possible.
Anyone with information on Maceiko or the investigation is encouraged to call police at (410) 222-4733. You can also remain anonymous by contacting the Anne Arundel County Tip Line at (410) 222-4700, or at Metro Crime Stoppers.
Police began investigating Maceiko after receiving information from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about an account that was directly associated in uploading child pornography to a particular website.
