A teacher’s aide from Maryland will not face charges after he was captured masturbating during a Zoom call with a class of eight graders.
Marc Schack, an assistant for special education students at Shady Grove Middle School in Gaithersburg, Maryland, previously said that he was unaware that his inappropriate act had been captured.
“I thought I was logged out when class was over,” he said in an interview.
“I had no clue that Zoom was still on. Why would I do that? That’s my job. I had no clue that Zoom was on. I mean, that’s just crazy behavior.”
In the 13-second clip, Schack was shown looking at the screen, before standing up, turning away from his laptop and beginning to masturbate.
The 21-year employee also said that he was unaware of the video when he was placed on administrative leave, and was told that the school “misplaced his background check file.”
“Maybe they were looking to see if I had any criminal misbehavior or anything like that.”
He clarified that he only discovered about the video after reporters contacted him on Wednesday.
“I’m only human,” he added. “It was my bad.”
“I’m not a pervert or anything like that, you know,” he continued.
“You gotta believe me on that … I thought I was in the privacy of my own home. I had no clue.”
On Thursday, a district spokesperson confirmed that an unnamed school staff had been put on leave as an investigation is ongoing into “inappropriate behavior that was sexual in nature”.
“Per our procedures, we do not release the names of staff members that are under investigation,” said Gboyinde Onijala in a statement.
“Local authorities were informed and are investigating as well.”
Schack also runs Pirate Magic, a business that throws “pirate parties” for youngsters while he portrays a character named “Captain Silly Bones”.