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Francis James Reppert Jr., 27, of Quakertown pleaded guilty to indecent exposure and invasion of privacy on Oct. 6, according to the Bucks County District Attorney's Office.
Reppert was charged last January following an investigation that began in October 2019, after a student captured a video of him viewing, and zooming in on a photo of what appeared to be a student’s legs, authorities said.
When confronted by police, Reppert admitted he took photos of the girl and intended to masturbate to them, Deputy District Attorney Matthew S. Lannetti said in court Tuesday.
Police found additional images on Reppert personal iPhone and a school-issued iPad during the investigation, which were taken from underneath Reppert’s desk and showed three female students, authorities said.
Investigators also recovered photos of Reppert exposing his penis inside the school, authorities said.
Reppert was fired by the Palisades School District in late 2019. He had been employed by the school district since August 2016.
One of the students told Judge Raymond F. McHugh that she was so disgusted by Reppert that she can never wear the same outfit she was wearing when he secretly took the upskirt photo of her, authorities said.
With tears running down her face, she told McHugh, “I live with the fact that photos of me can still be floating around the Internet or on someone’s phone."
Another victim told McHugh that she would be happy to see stricter punishments for people like Reppert. “I’m hopeful it will become a crime in Pennsylvania as it is in other states,” she said.
After hearing from the victims, McHugh sentenced Reppert to one year less one day to two years less one day at the Bucks County Correctional Facility followed by two years of probation, authorities said.
Reppert was also ordered to pay $2,447.68 toward the Victims Compensation Assistance Program to cover the costs of therapy for the victims, authorities said.
As part of his plea, Reppert will be required to register through Megan’s Law for at least 15 years, authorities said.
The sentence was on the higher end of the aggravated sentence range, which Lannetti argued for because of the damage inflicted on the victims and Reppert position of authority, authorities said. Reppert had been requesting only probation.
“When we send our kids to school, we are supposed to know they are safe,” Lannetti said. “Other than being home with their families, there is no safer place to be.”
Since Reppert's arrest, local lawmakers have proposed legislation that would lead to stricter penalties on “upskirting” cases, particularly when the victims are minors and the defendant is a teacher, Lannetti said.
The bipartisan bill, House Bill 2453, was introduced last spring and would make an upskirting offense a third-degree felony for a first violation and a second-degree felony for additional offenses, authorities said. Currently, offenders can only face a misdemeanor charge for similar incidents.
The case was investigated by Pennsylvania State Police and prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Matthew S. Lannetti.
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