Phoenix School Teacher Arrested For Attempting To Lure Minor For Sex In Undercover Sting

A Phoenix Union High School District teacher has been arrested for allegedly trying to arrange sex with a young boy.

According to court documents, on March 24, Samuel Gerald Bauman, 30, was arrested in Scottsdale, following an investigation that began weeks earlier when a Homeland Security special agent was notified of a person in the Phoenix area that had expressed a sexual interest in children.

“[A special agent] stated that while acting in a lawful undercover, online capacity, he had been engaged in online chat on the dating application Grindr. At some point during the online chat, the conversation turned to the sexual exploitation of children,” read a portion of the documents. “[The special agent] and the subject eventually moved from the application Grindr to the application Kik, where the ongoing chat regarding the sexual exploitation of children continued.”


On Thursday, March 23, while in communication with who Bauman thought was the child, he shared a photo of himself. Homeland Security took the photo and ran it through facial recognition software. The program compares photos to a publicly available, open-source image database, and agents were able to find a match. Bauman had been tagged in a photo online and that led agents to a profile which provided investigator’s Bauman’s name.

Through their investigation, agents learned that Bauman was a teacher at Phoenix Coding Academy, located off of Central Avenue and school within the Phoenix Union High School District.

According to reports, during the conversation, Bauman allegedly asked the undercover agent, acting as the 5-year-old, if he had ever had sex. The next day, the agent arranged a meeting with Bauman, which involved him driving from his home in Midtown Phoenix to Scottsdale. When Bauman arrived at the meeting location, he was met by agents and taken immediately into custody. In his car, investigators found two sex toys and a condom.

The Phoenix Union High School District released the following statement:
Over the weekend, the District administrative team was contacted by law enforcement, informing us that Phoenix Coding Academy teacher Mr. Samuel Bauman was placed under arrest. Mr. Bauman was immediately placed on Administrative Leave by the District administration. PXU will cooperate fully with law enforcement as they continue to investigate. The District will follow all internal protocols and procedures as we launch our own investigation as prescribed by applicable law and Governing Board policy.
-Richard Franco, spokesperson for Phoenix Union High School District

Bauman was booked into jail on one count of attempted sexual exploitation of a minor. A judge has set a cash-only $200,000 bond for Bauman. Should he be able to make bail, Bauman will be required to undergo electronic monitoring, among other restrictions, and will not be allowed to have any contact with minors or return to any school or school system as an employee.