The apparent suicide of Olathe East art teacher John Derby will not stop the police from completing their investigation into his reported child porn collection.
The police found Derby’s body Thursday night in a field in DeSoto. Earlier that evening police, armed with a warrant, raided his Overland Park apartment looking for child porn. As reported by Fox 4 KC, police seized his computer, now the subject of a forensic examination.
The investigation continues because police remain uncertain as to the identities of the children whose images Derby collected. There is some concern they could be students from Olathe East or residents of the Plaza at Overland Park Townhomes where Derby lived.
According to the Olathe East website, Derby had only been teaching in Olathe for a year. He taught metals, jewelry and ceramics. Although there is little public information available about Derby, what stands out about his record is his departure from the University of Kansas.
According to Derby’s Linkedin page, he had taught for the previous eight years at the University of Kansas, seven of those years as an assistant professor, and the last one as an associate. This means he had been promoted–and likely granted tenure–just a year before his departure.
It is very nearly unheard of for a tenured professor to leave a comfy gig at a top notch university to take a job as a high school art teacher anywhere, let alone an ordinary public high school like Olathe East.
When asked by an interviewer in February 2017 why he became a professor, he answered, “I care about the quality of art teaching, and I wanted to prepare art teachers who are as passionate about art as much as they are about teaching.” This is not something he would get to do at Olathe East.
His favorite part of teaching, Derby told the interviewer, was “the privilege of working with ambitious young people.” Again, this would have better accomplished at KU.
As part of their investigation, the police should ask KU whether Derby’s penchant for porn was discovered when he taught there. If that was not the reason for his unlikely departure, they should ask what was.