A former pre-kindergarten teacher's aide at Woodbine Elementary School in Cape May County, New Jersey, is facing 61 criminal charges after prosecutors alleged that he filmed young students in a school bathroom and sexually assaulted children in his care — allegations that were read out in court on Monday, November 2, and that reach a detention hearing on Wednesday, November 4. Shaun M. Stebbins, 44, of Somers Point, appeared by video from the Atlantic County Justice Facility as Municipal Judge Carl Tripician spent more than 15 minutes reading the 61 charges, spread across 12 separate cases, according to reporting on the first appearance.

Source: Cape May NJ Daily

The charges, announced by the Cape May County Prosecutor's Office on Thursday, October 30, are among the most serious in New Jersey law. Two of the categories — manufacturing child pornography and aggravated sexual assault — are first-degree crimes. Stebbins has been in jail since March 29, when he was arrested in a separate Atlantic County case alleging years of abuse of four young relatives, so the Woodbine charges were filed against a man who was already behind bars and already removed from the classroom.

Source: Cape May County Prosecutor's Office via Cape May Scanner

What the affidavits say investigators found

According to the affidavits of probable cause described in local reporting, the Woodbine investigation turned on Stebbins' own devices. On April 20 and May 8, Detective Celena Cruz-Lawson received the results of extractions from Stebbins' cell phone, computer tower and internal hard drives, which investigators said showed numerous images and videos of students at Woodbine Elementary School. Prosecutors allege the material showed students using the school bathroom and Stebbins committing sexual acts on children both in the bathroom and during the children's scheduled nap time.

Source: Downbeach / Cape May NJ Daily (affidavits of probable cause)

The alleged victims were among the youngest children in the school. Reporting based on the affidavits says more than a half-dozen of the student victims were 5 years old, and at least one was just 4. WPVI-TV (6abc), whose reporting from the court documents has been carried across the region, said police have identified additional alleged victims as the investigation has widened. No victim is identified by name in any of the reporting, and Awaaz Punjab does not name or describe child victims beyond age and school.

Source: WPVI-TV 6abc

An arrest in March, in a separate case

Stebbins' arrest on March 29, 2026, came first in Atlantic County, where he was charged in connection with allegations that he sexually assaulted four young relatives — siblings — over a span of years, with the alleged abuse in that case beginning when the children were about 5 and 6 years old; that case, reported at the time as 16 counts, dates the alleged conduct back more than a decade. At the time of that arrest, Atlantic County Prosecutor William Reynolds said publicly that his office was 'deeply concerned that there may be additional victims, particularly given the defendant's access to children through his employment' — the concern that led the Cape May County Prosecutor's Office to open its own investigation in April.

Source: Cape May NJ Daily

That employment gave him daily access to the district's youngest children for more than four years. Stebbins was hired at Woodbine Elementary School in February 2022 and worked there as a pre-kindergarten teacher's aide until his March arrest. In a detail that has sharpened the shock for local families, the school had previously named him its Paraprofessional of the Year for 2024-2025 — an honour reported by the Cape May NJ Daily in its coverage of his original arrest.

Source: Cape May County Prosecutor's Office via Cape May Scanner

What officials and the school district say

Announcing the charges on October 30, Cape May County Prosecutor Jeffrey H. Sutherland said: 'Children are among our most vulnerable population and we have a responsibility to protect their safety and well-being. Anyone who harms a child will be held accountable through our justice system.' The Cape May investigation was run by his office together with the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office and the Somers Point Police Department, and prosecutors stress that it remains ongoing.

Source: Cape May County Prosecutor's Office via Cape May Scanner

The Woodbine School District moved to replace Stebbins as soon as he was arrested in March. Superintendent Adrienne Breitinger previously told families in a letter that the district immediately sought to replace him following the March 29 arrest, and the school removed him from the classroom at that point — months before the device evidence produced the student-related charges now before the court.

Source: WFPG / Townsquare Media

What happens next

A new detention hearing on the Woodbine charges is set for Wednesday, November 4. Stebbins already agreed to detention on the earlier Atlantic County charges, and local reporting expects the same outcome at the new hearing, which would keep him in the Atlantic County Justice Facility while both cases proceed. Information about his legal counsel or any plea was not immediately available in the reporting reviewed. The charges are allegations: Stebbins is presumed innocent unless and until he is proven guilty in court.

Source: Downbeach / Cape May NJ Daily

For families across South Jersey — including New Jersey's large Indian and Punjabi communities in Middlesex, Bergen and Mercer counties, many of whose children attend small local elementary schools like Woodbine — the case is a stark reminder of why prosecutors moved publicly at every stage: the March arrest announcement, the April investigation, and now the student charges all carried the same message that anyone with information should come forward, because investigators believe there may be more victims than the 12 cases read out on Monday.