A former Judson ISD band teacher has been sentenced to 131 years in prison after being found guilty of possessing and promoting child pornography.
Until his first arrest in August 2022, Mark Mallow was a teacher at Woodlake Hills Middle School in Judson ISD, which is located just northeast of San Antonio.
The charges filed against Mallow show that he used the Snapchat app to send images and videos of young boys performing sex acts and used the app Telegram to share images of child sex abuse, some of which involved infants. He also used the Grindr app to solicit a picture of a teenage boy’s genitals, according to the Texas Scorecard.
Mallow was arrested in 2022 following a tip-off from Snapchat, which was filed with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in April of that year. Mallow sent a video of young boys engaging in sexual acts to another Snapchat user, per Texas Scorecard.
He was arrested a second time in June 2023 while out on a $180,000 bond for the previous child porn charges that resulted from a sting operation conducted by independent journalist Alex Rosen. Rosen would later testify at Mallow’s trial.
“They played our entire video in court, and now he’s serving life in prison because we caught him while he was out on bond,” Rosen said, according to the Texas Scorecard.
The City of Dallas crime analytics dashboard shows that in 2023, there were 60 crimes committed involving pornography or obscene material.
Alleged criminal misconduct involving minors on the part of teachers has also been reported in the Dallas area.
As reported by The Dallas Express, a Dallas ISD teacher faced criminal charges last year for inappropriately touching and texting a student. According to court documents obtained by The Dallas Express, the victim claimed the teacher called and texted her, asking inappropriate questions and making comments. He also purportedly “rubbed his hand against her buttocks inside [his] classroom.”