Jason Caplan Investigators arrested a 27-year-old employee of Pinecrest School in Thousand Oaks at his Moorpark home for possession and distribution of child pornography.

Jason Caplan is alleged to have been receiving and sending sexually explicit images of preteen children using his personal computer, according to Detective Eric Buschow of the Thousand Oaks Police Department.

“There were a minimum of dozens of photos,” Buschow said.

Caplan oversaw lunch, answered phones and supervised physical education classes at the private school at 449 E. Wilbur Road. His work was done around other adults, not alone with the children, according to Pinecrest executive director Lisa Glenn.

“He was terminated Feb. 1 after we were notified by the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department,” Glenn said.

Caplan had worked at Pinecrest School for 7½ years, she said.

“The kids called him ‘coach,’” Buschow said.

“We’re very pleased it did not happen here. There was never a report about him having any inappropriate activity with children and there still hasn‘t been,” Glenn said.

The director said she met with parents and children to give them the opportunity to talk about any concerns and to let them know how to reach detectives.

She said parents assumed the school knew about the investigation of Caplan before his arrest, but school officials didn’t know anything until after he was taken into custody.

“We didn’t have any record of any wrongdoing at the school. I was surprised, the parents were surprised and the staff was surprised,” Glenn said.

Pinecrest School officials released an announcement that said, “At this point in time, there is no known complaint, information or basis to suspect that Jason Caplan was inappropriately involved with Pinecrest schoolchildren. The sheriff’s department has advised us that it has concluded that at present it does not have any basis for investigation at Pinecrest School.”

The investigation began when the Internet Crimes Against Children task force in Delaware County, Pa., allegedly discovered a connection between a suspect in that area who’d exchanged sexually explicit images of children through e-mails with Caplan, a police report said.

The local task force then began to investigate Caplan, leading to a 7 a.m. search of his home in the 4500 block of Ashtree Street in Moorpark and his arrest on Feb. 1. Investigators seized several items, including a laptop computer, the police report said.

Caplan was booked at the East County Jail in Thousand Oaks and was released after posting a $50,000 bond.

Because Caplan’s position gave him access to children, anyone with information about the suspect’s involvement in any inappropriate activity is asked to contact Detective Anthony Aguirre at (805) 371-8309.