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A former Walton High School teacher admitted he sent sexually provocative messages and photographs to several of his students on social media.
The Delaware County District Attorney's Office announced on July 20 that 41-year-old Eric Scofield, of Walton, pleaded guilty in Delaware County Court to three counts of tampering with physical evidence, five counts of official misconduct and criminal contempt for his inappropriate communications with his high school students.
Scofield, who taught math at Walton High School, had been sending the sexually provocative messages as early as October 2024 and until February 10, 2026.
Walton Superintendent Teresa Glavin said Scofield had been placed on administrative leave and was not allowed on the school campus in a Feb. 16 statement posted on the district’s website.
Prior to pleading guilty, Scofield confessed under oath that he used Snapchat to engage in these conversations with five of his high school students. He admitted that he knew he was not allowed to engage in these conversations on Snapchat, as they were unrelated to the students' schoolwork and were "otherwise an unauthorized act of his official function as a schoolteacher," according to the county district attorney's office. Scofield additionally admitted that he engaged in these communications to obtain personal sexual gratification.
Scofield also admitted that he had concealed or deleted messages that could have been used against him in court and, despite knowing there was an official court order preventing him from visiting the victims' school, he went anyway on June 10.
Scofield was initially charged with disseminating indecent material to minors and two counts of a sexually motivated felony on Feb. 15 after the Village of Walton Police Department and the Delaware County District Attorney’s Office completed a joint investigation over several months.
Delaware County District Attorney Shawn J. Smith said in an email that indecent material cases involve nude or sexually inappropriate images. Most cases, according to Smith, have naked pictures or a sexual video being shared.
The indecent materials in this case, which Smith said were the basis for the sexually motivated felonies, involved photographs of "clothed individuals with emojis pasted on them." He said the emojis used included symbols such as eggplants, tacos, hot dogs and others that are "widely known to correspond to male or female sexual parts."
While Smith said he believes this qualifies as "indecent materials" pursuant to the statute, if he had pursued these charges, Delaware County would have been the first county to test this theory.
"I think this is a situation where the law has not caught up with technology," Smith said. "The state recently amended the law to include AI images, but it is not clear if they intended this type of 'photoshopped' photographs. After extensive research, I decided it was not worth taking the risk of making new case law at the expense of the many victims in this case."
Tampering with physical evidence, a felony, carries a maximum sentence of one and a third to four years, and the two misdemeanor charges carry a maximum sentence of 364 days, but that sentence would merge with the felony sentence.
If Schofield had been convicted of disseminating indecent material, he would have faced two and a third to seven years. The bigger consequence of the reduced sentence, according to Smith, is that without the disseminating indecent materials convictions, he will not be subjected to lifetime registration as a sex offender.
Scofield's sentencing date is scheduled for Sept. 11 in Delaware County Court.
This article originally appeared on Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin: Reduced charges for former Walton teacher after DA cites legal risks
