St. CLOUD, Fla. – A St. Cloud man who resigned from his job at an Osceola County school last week was arrested on Wednesday, accused of possessing child porn, according to police.
Mark Harden, 58, was arrested to face charges of promotion/depiction of sexual conduct by a child, unlawful use of a two-way communication device and 10 counts of possession of sexual conduct by a child, the St. Cloud Police Department said in a news release.
Harden worked at Zenith Accelerated Learning Academy, according to the Osceola School District.
Detectives obtained a search warrant on Friday, Oct. 3, for Harden’s home on Georgia Avenue, where they recovered electronic devices “containing hundreds of images and videos depicting the sexual exploitation of children,” the news release states.
The investigation began in August after the the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office received a tip and passed it along to the police department’s Internet Crimes Against Children unit, according to the release. The affidavit for Harden’s arrest warrant states, in part, that he would send and trade child-sexual-abuse material with others online and “would talk about how he secretly takes photographs of (children and adults) without their knowledge.”
“These images also included children at the school Mark Harden works at and included remarks about the children’s body parts,” the affidavit states.
Harden was being held on a $26,000 bond at the time of this report, records show.
Those who believe they or their child may be a victim in the case are urged to contact St. Cloud police at 407-891-6700, using extension 6726 and referencing report No. 25-004286.