Shrewsbury school worker facing child pornography charges

LUNENBURG, Mass. — A Shrewsbury school employee has been placed on leave after he was arrested on child pornography charges.

Aiden York-Wallach, 19, of Lunenburg, was arrested after Lunenburg police, the Massachusetts State Police Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, the United States Secret Service, and the members of the New England Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory executed a search warrant at his home on Thursday.

York is charged with two counts of possession of child pornography and one count of dissemination of visual material of a child in a state of nudity or sexual conduct.

According to Shrewsbury Public Schools, York-Wallach worked as an ABA technician paraeducator at Sherwood Middle School.

Additionally, he worked in the after-school programs at several different locations, including Sherwood, Beal School, and Spring Street School, in the Summer Enrichment and Special Education Extended Year programs, alongside the Unified athletics and social club at the middle schools.

Lunenburg Police said the charges are not connected to any Shrewsbury student.

A criminal complaint said York-Wallach talked candidly about his desire for child sexual abuse images on Snapchat.

The complaint said he told another user, “You just gotta dig for it”.

York also reportedly said he “likes children 10+” in a conversation with another user.

“This person was a threat, not only to my child, but for anyone who interacted with him within that school,” said Brittany Hilton, mother of a 5^th-grade Sherwood Middle School student.

Brittany and Jeremy Hilton told Boston 25 News they’re especially disturbed by the allegations because their 11-year-old son is non-verbal and on the autism spectrum.

They said their son works one-on-one with York-Wallach on a daily basis.

“My son loved Aiden. They were BFFs,” said father Jeremy Hilton. “It’s disturbing to me that this is going on in his head.”

Shrewsbury Public Schools also noted the following in a statement:

When we received this information today, Mr. York-Wallach was immediately placed on leave and we revoked all access to SPS buildings and systems.
We reviewed and confirmed that the district performed all required criminal background checks prior to Mr. York-Wallach starting in our schools, and there was no criminal record.
School leaders have been communicating with the families of students with whom Mr. York-Wallach worked directly.

An investigation into the incident is ongoing.

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