Neighbor calls child porn allegations against teacher ‘very scary’

A neighbor of a Perris middle-school teacher arrested on suspicion of possessing child pornography and taking inappropriate photos of girls calls the allegations “very scary.”

Eric Michael Samuel, 37, allegedly took digital photos of the students at Lakeside Middle School without their knowledge, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department said.

The photos of the girls, according to department authorities, “focused on their chests and buttocks.”

Investigators served a search warrant at Samuel’s Moreno Valley home and allegedly found “several videos and pictures containing child pornography,” authorities said in a statement.

Samuel’s neighbor, Kristen Waters, told KCAL-TV that she has children who are 21 “all the way down to 4.”

“If in fact he’s really hurting the children, he doesn’t deserve to be on the streets,” she said.

Samuel was arrested Tuesday at his home and was being held at the Southwest County Detention Center in Murrieta on $5,000 bail.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call investigator John Wyatt of the Perris Police Department at (951) 210-1000.

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