Ettlinger was arrested as part of a federal investigation into Dreamboard, a website where subscribers posted and distributed child pornography.
Last week, Ettlinger pleaded not guilty in West Roxbury District Court to charges of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 and posing a child in a state of nudity. He also pleaded not guilty in Brighton District Court to related charges of possession of child pornography.
Ettlinger was a teacher at Underwood Elementary School and had been employed by the Newton public schools for 12 years. Newton parents have been stunned by his arrest.
School officials said they were moving to fire Ettlinger, who has been put on administrative leave.
Last night, Newton school officials held a community meeting at Newton North High School to discuss the situation with parents and local residents. About 150 people attended.
“I thought I knew him,’’ said Yee Kwan, whose son was in Ettlinger’s classroom at Peirce Elementary School, where he taught previously.
Kwan said she volunteered often in the classroom and never noticed anything amiss. “I thought I judged character really well,’’ she said.
Several parents at the meeting questioned the city’s policies and procedures for training teachers and reporting problems with educators. Although Ettlinger’s background was checked through a Criminal Offender Record Information, or CORI, report, parents wondered if the district should investigate teachers’ backgrounds further.
School Superintendent David Fleishman said there is an internal working group looking at the district’s procedures.
Isabel Stover of Newton said she found Ettlinger through Sittercity and he baby-sat for her two children once in October after she checked his references and discovered nothing wrong.
She said she feels “incredibly relieved’’ that nothing bad happened. She was notified of the situation by Sittercity last Wednesday, she said.
Schwartz directed further inquiries about Ettlinger’s involvement with Sittercity to the Suffolk district attorney’s office, which would not comment on the investigation.
Caregivers who register on Sittercity are screened to verify their identity and checked against state sex-offender registries, Schwartz said.
Both parents and child-care providers can also initiate background checks through the site that searches local, state, and federal criminal records, she said.
“Sittercity takes safety very seriously,’’ Schwartz said.
