He Got Books Banned for 'Gay Content.' Now He's Charged for Child Porn

Ten years ago, Phillip Todd Wilson was principal of a Kentucky high school and, along with other administrators, got four books banned because they included topics he deemed "inappropriate," including "homosexual content." Today, Wilson is a 54-year-old former principal who's been hit with 17 child pornography and distribution charges. Charges were filed by Kentucky state police in August but news outlets including Local 12 and the Lexington Herald-Leader were reporting this week he has now been indicted by a grand jury. Wilson had moved on to another high school in the state after the book banning, but that high school says he is no longer employed there.

The Winchester Sun reports Wilson was arrested after someone told the school resource officer they received about 15 images from him via text message and social media. "As I said to some friends last night when I got the news, 'You can't make this shit up,'" posted Jo Knowles, author of one of the books Wilson got pulled from his school's curriculum, back in August. The four books, per NBC News: Knowles' Lessons from a Dead Girl, Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson, Deadline by Chris Crutcher, and Unwind by Neal Shusterman. Anderson's response to news of Wilson's indictment: "Books that help kids examine the violence, abuse and shame they've endured are very threatening to the people who commit those acts of violence, abuse, and shaming." (More child sexual abuse material stories.)