Onslow County teacher arrested, accused of secretly recording students in classroom

Morgan Starling, The Daily News

April 29, 2022 at 4:41 PM·4 min read

Update 4:00 p.m.

A press conference was held Friday afternoon at the city of Jacksonville Center for Public Safety regarding the arrest of a New Bridge Middle School teacher accused of secretly filming students in his classroom.

Jacksonville Police Chief Michael Yaniero said detectives are in the process of examining the content of the seized devices and working to identify potential victims.

"At this point in the investigation, there is no evidence that has been found to support that any physical contact between Stephen Bera and students of New Bridge occurred," Yaniero said, though he encourages students to come forward with any information they may have.

District Attorney Ernie Lee said Bera was charged under North Carolina General Statute GS14-202, "secretly peeping into a room occupied by another person," under the subsections F and G.

Both are Class I felonies, and Bera was charged with 10 counts under each.

"We do have a lot of the video images," Yaniero said. "We've been going through those images for most of the day, there's a lot of images for us to look at. The images fit that statute because they show students in various stages of undress and so, we'll continue to look at those videos, we've reached out to our ICAP partners and they're helping us go through the data that we have within the devices that we seized last night."

Yaniero did say the recording device seized was designed to look like something else.

Chief Communications Officer of Onslow County Schools, Brent Anderson, said Bera has resigned his teaching position, surrendered his teaching license, and is no longer employed by the OCS system.

He began his employment with OCS in 2007 as a language arts teacher at Hunters Creek Middle School. He also worked at Northwoods Park Middle School, Onslow Virtual School, and most recently, New Bridge, Anderson said.

"The safety and security of students in the Onslow County School system is our highest concern," Anderson said. "The thoughts and prayers of everyone with OCS goes out to all who have been impacted by the events which have resulted in the arrest of former teacher Stephen Bera. The Onslow County School system maintains high standards for all our employees and Mr. Bera's actions stand in stark contrast to our expectations."

11:51 a.m.

An Onslow County middle school teacher has been arrested for allegedly secretly filming students in his classroom.

Jacksonville Police Department received information Thursday that Stephen J. Bera a teacher at New Bridge Middle School had secretly recorded students in his classroom, according to a news release from the department Friday morning.

The release said detectives found that Bera had installed a secret recording device in his classroom, and with the assistance of school officials, detectives seized the device and other items of evidence from the school, before responding to Bera's residence where he was taken into custody without incident.

Bera has been charged with secretly using or installing a photography device with the intent to capture the image of another without their consent and is under a $25,000 secured bond.

The release said the investigation is active and ongoing as detectives work with the District Attorney's office to identify more charges which will be forthcoming.

“We are asking anyone with knowledge of this incident to contact the Jacksonville Police Department," said Investigative Services Supervisor Lieutenant Christopher Funcke. "We are currently working with Onslow County school officials to identify victims and will be reaching out to those involved.”

A press conference is scheduled at 3 p.m. today, and The Daily News will stream the conference live on Facebook.

The Police Department asks that anyone with information or concerns reaches out to the police department. The department has crisis counselors on staff and available to speak with those who have been affected.

Anyone with information is asked to contact JPD Criminal Investigations Division Detective B. Stitz at 910-938-5039 or Crime Stoppers at 910-938-3273. Crime Stoppers offers cash rewards of up to $2,500 for information determined to be of value to law enforcement. Callers to Crime Stoppers are not required to reveal their identities. Information can also be anonymously texted via Text-A-Tip by typing TIP4CSJAX and your message to 274637 (CRIMES).

Reporter Morgan Starling can be reached at mstarling@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on The Daily News: Onslow County teacher has been arrested for secretly filming students

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Update 4:00 p.m.

11:51 a.m.

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