Phoenixville School Board May Launch Czukoski Investigation

Phoenixville Area School District may launch an investigation into what, if anything, it could have done differently regarding the child pornography charge that has been levied against the former principal of its middle school.

Phoenixville Area School District board member Dan Cushing made a motion at Thursday’s workshop meeting to create a special counsel to investigate whether the district missed any telltale signs of misconduct from Dr. Troy Czukoski, according to The Mercury. Though Cushing withdrew his motion after an executive session, he said he would advance an altered version of it next week. President Josh Gould added that the board would “spend some time crafting a motion”

Though the district has categorically denied that it knew anything about the charge against Czukoski until media reports surfaced on Tuesday, there has been speculation that PASD had suspicions. After seven years as principal, Czukoski was moved into a post in district office in February of 2012, before leaving in the summer to take over as principal at Springton Lake Middle School in Media.

According to U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger, Czukoski possessed more than 150 but less than 300 images of children engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

The U.S. Attorney charges that:

"Czukoski knowingly possessed books, magazines, periodicals, films, video tapes and other matter, namely two flash drives, CDs and DVDs, which contained more than 150 but less than 300 visual depictions that had been produced using materials which had been shipped and transported in interstate and foreign commerce. The production of these visual depictions involved the use of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct and the visual depictions were of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct."

The case was investigated by the United States Postal Inspection Service and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Michelle Rotella.