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Updated January 11, 2025, at 1:33 p.m.
A music teacher at Buckingham Browne & Nichols, a private school in Cambridge that teaches kindergarten through twelfth grade, was arrested on child pornography charges early Thursday morning.
Cambridge police charged Joshua DeWitte, of Cambridge, with six counts of distributing obscene matter to a minor, one count of distribution of child sexual act material, and one count of possession of child pornography.
DeWitte pleaded not guilty at his arraignment on Thursday in Cambridge District Court and has been held on $8,000 bail. His lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Investigators were first notified of “suspected activity” on DeWitte’s Snapchat account in December, Middlesex County District Attorney Marian T. Ryan’s office wrote in a statement.
The investigation found that DeWitte was allegedly speaking to several male children on the app in chats that included “conversations that were sexual in nature.”
The Cambridge Police Department said DeWitte is 49, and the Middlesex County District Attorney’s statement gave his age as 50.
Parents were notified of DeWitte’s arrest in a Thursday morning email from BB&N Head of School Jennifer Price. DeWitte has been placed on leave from the school and has been issued a “no trespass” order, according to the email.
DeWitte began teaching music to grades 3-6 at BB&N in August after working at Cambridge Public Schools for 13 years. In her email to parents, Price wrote that BB&N had reviewed its hiring of DeWitte and that the school encountered no red flags during the process.
“Mr. DeWitte successfully completed all criminal background checks, and our reference checks with three previous employers were consistently positive and indicated no concerns,” Price wrote in a statement.
Before starting at BB&N, DeWitte taught music in Cambridge Public Schools at both the Peabody School and Rindge Avenue Upper School, according to a district spokesperson.
BB&N leadership plans to hold a forum for parents to ask questions and express their concerns next week, though a date and time has not yet been set.
CPD is working to identify victims, and an investigation is ongoing. There is no current indication that any of the victims are BB&N or CPS students, according to the Cambridge Police Department.
—Staff writer Matan H. Josephy can be reached matan.josephy@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @matanjosephy.
—Staff writer Laurel M. Shugart can be reached at laurel.shugart@thecrimson.com. Follow them on X @laurelmshugart or on Threads @laurel.shugart.
