Burgess consented to the team’s request to access his home computer on which they found several child pornography IP addresses.

Burgess, who has been teaching in the Boothbay Region school system since 1973, has since been placed on leave from his teaching position pending the investigation, King said.

The Computer Crimes Unit monitors IP addresses (the numeric location and ownership code for every used computer) sharing child pornographic Web sites.

In a phone interview, Northrup said the state is backlogged with 200 such crimes that are prioritized by the unit.

"Anyone with a background in child sexual abuse, pornography, someone on the sex offenders list, or someone with access to children become high priorities bearing immediate investigation," said Northrup.

The unit sends a request to the Internet provider of an individual being investigated by sending the IP address and requests for dates and times of use to child porn sites. The provider will then send the name, address and telephone number of the person the address "belongs" to with any other information requested.

"The school administrators have been cooperating fully and have no reports of any inappropriate behavior with students at the school," said Northrup. "And we have not found any images of students at school."

The investigation will continue, utilizing the software program created by Sergeant Glenn Lang of the Maine State Police Computer Crime Unit, which allows the team to retrieve not only deleted files and photos, but videos.

"Videos had always been difficult to retrieve once deleted because they fragmented. Sgt. Lang’s software, developed with the help of some college students, has alleviated that block," Northrup said.

The unit will submit the case to the district attorney’s office as soon as they have completed their work.

"We are deeply disturbed about the charges," King said. "We will continue, as always, to provide a safe atmosphere for our students."

King added that there had never been any reports about Burgess behaving inappropriately with students at any time.

Burgess, who earned his master’s degree at the University of Maine at Orono, began his career in 1971 in Orono. The following year he was in Sherman Mills; in 1973 he came to Boothbay as a general elementary school educator.

In 1988, he began teaching middle school social studies. This school year, he was also teaching a section of science.

Burgess was released on $1,500 cash bail with a bail condition prohibiting him from having direct or indirect contact with any school students. Further, any visits with family under the age of 18 must be supervised.