A Farmington teacher faced 33 counts of child pornography Wednesday after being arrested following a three-month investigation.
Police arrested Faron Grant Carpenter, 38, on charges that he manufactured and distributed child pornography.
Police said when they searched Carpenter's home, they found thousands of pornographic images of young children, mostly around the ages of 3 or 4, engaging in sexual activity with other children and adults.
Carpenter worked at the Emmanuel Baptist Child Development Center as an aide in the classroom for 4-year-olds. According to the school, he passed a background check and had good references.
Carpenter resigned three weeks ago when he came under investigation.
Parents were concerned that in addition to the pornographic images that police said Carpenter downloaded from the Internet, he also had in his possesion several non-pornographic photos of Emmanuel students.
"None of the pictures of the children at Emmanuel Baptist academy were of an inappropriate nature," Education Minister Kevin Molloy said.
The academy takes developmental milestone pictures of their children as part of a national accreditation program, but authorities said that doesn't explain why Carpenter had the photos on his computer at home.
Carpenter is being held on a $300,000 cash-only bond. He is waiting on a preliminary hearing to determine probable cause. If he waives that hearing, his case could be automatically set in district court.