A teacher within the Alpine School District has been arrested for allegedly downloading content depicting child sex abuse.

Travis Adamson, 50, of Provo, an art teacher at Oak Canyon Junior High School in Lindon, was taken into custody and booked on suspicion of sexual exploitation of a minor and uploading child porn onto the internet, according to court documents.

Investigators say that in April 2023, Adobe Inc. learned about the alleged crime and passed along a cybertip to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children stating “that a user had uploaded files containing depictions of minors engaging in sexual explicit conduct to his or her account,” a probable cause statement stated.

The information was then passed along to the Utah Attorney General’s Office’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

One of the files in question reportedly contained explicit images of an underage child, documents allege.

The cybertip also included other information said to be associated with Adamson, including his district email account and IP address, and detectives also traced his computer to an area in Provo, the documents claim.

Authorities were able to match his employee email address to that of the suspected user who uploaded the reported image, documents state.

The Alpine School District verified Adamson’s employment with law enforcement.

Investigators located Adamson at the school on Monday where he allegedly admitted to being the sole user of the Adobe account and to viewing child sex abuse material over the past five or six years and as recently as last week, according to the court documents.

He reportedly told authorities that he “stumbled across it” while searching for pornography using specific search terms.

“Travis stated that he downloaded several thousand images and videos which are stored on his hard drive at home,” the probable cause statement said.

Investigators also claim that Adamson admitted to being attracted to kids within the age range of 12-14, which is the same age of students he teaches.

While Adamson reportedly didn’t deny viewing the explicit material, he denied ever photographing the kids or doing anything sexual or inappropriate with his students or any other kids.

According to the Alpine School District, Adamson has been placed on administrative leave, and officials will be in contact with the Utah County Sheriff’s Office as the investigation proceeds.

District spokesperson Rich Stowell said transparency with parents of students at the school is key, adding that school administrators and counselors will make themselves available to help students process the news.

“When we learn of something that puts the safety or trust of students and parents at risk, we act quickly,” he told the Daily Herald. “School administration has kept parents of Oak Canyon students informed throughout the process.”

In a statement sent to the Daily Herald, the district said in part: “District policies and state laws guide the district on how to proceed. All district employees undergo a criminal background check prior to beginning employment and we appreciate the professionalism of our law enforcement partners.”

Stowell also said that as the investigation progresses, the district anticipates exploring ways to reinforce safeguards to ensure similar instances don’t occur.

Adamson was booked into the Utah County Jail and is being held without bail, pending a pretrial hearing, the booking affidavit stated.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Adamson hadn’t been formally charged.