CENTENNIAL, Colo. — Arapahoe County sheriff's deputies have arrested an elementary school substitute teacher on a child pornography charge.
The Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office said investigators received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that someone had uploaded suspected child pornography through the social media platform Snapchat.
Arapahoe County investigators found that the suspect lived in Centennial and had worked as a substitute teacher for two different school districts.
The sheriff's office said Jose Tomayo, 25, worked for Littleton Public Schools in 2021 and 2022 as a substitute teacher and for Englewood Public Schools as a substitute teacher and paraprofessional during the 2020-2021 school year.
Investigators do not believe any of the victims were students of either district.
A letter to parents from Littleton Public Schools Superintendent Brian Ewert said that Tomayo was teaching third-graders at Runyon Elementary School when he was arrested Friday. It said that he was arrested outside the building, out of the sight of children.
The letter said Tomayo has also taught at Centennial, East, Field, Lenski, Sandburg, Twain and Wilder elementary schools.
"We take student safety extremely seriously," the letter said. "We immediately took action after we were notified of these serious allegations by the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office. We removed Jose Tamayo from our substitutes list and will continue to fully cooperate with the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office as it continues its investigation. Under state and federal law, a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty."
The letter said Tomayo passed a background check before he began teaching for the district.
Anyone with information on the case is asked to call the Arapahoe County Sheriff's investigations tip line at 720-874-8477.
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