May 18, 2013

Facing child porn charges, York County school board member suspended

The school board that oversees a York County prep school suspended one of its own Tuesday after his arrest on child pornography charges.

53-year-old Timothy Ruzbacki was arrested Monday after investigators said they found child porn on his computer. He had been on the board for York Preparatory Academy– a private school in Rock Hill

York County sheriff’s deputies have charged Ruzbacki with 10 counts of third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor. Authorities say they obtained search warrants after being tipped off about the images. Detectives ended up retrieving several images of sexual acts with children on Ruzbacki’s computer and arrested him immediately at his home.

Ruzbacki had served as the academic committee chair on the York Prep board. He is also a senior process manager at Ally Bank.

According a Ruzbacki’s biography on the school’s website, which has since been removed, Ruzbacki’s wife teaches at the school and two of his stepdaughters attend the Bird Street campus.

After more than an hour behind closed doors, board members, voted unanimously to suspend Ruzbacki. School board member Rob Neville delivered a statement afterwards, saying “We have no information regarding the details of Mr. Ruzbacki’s arrest yesterday by the York County Sheriff’s Office and were previously unaware of any police investigation or activities. As we do with all prospective board members, a background investigation was conducted before he joined as a volunteer board member.”

Andrew Kiel of Rock Hill station WRHI contributed to this report.