A former Kelly Walsh High School teacher has been sentenced to five months in prison for attempted possession of child pornography at the school, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced Thursday.

Kenneth Riedl, 44, a longtime business-education teacher and coach at KW, left the Natrona County School District in May after nearly 20 years.

Assistant U.S. District Attorney Jim Anderson said Riedl had responded to an Internet advertisement for child pornography videos that had been placed by a postal inspector as part of a sting operation last year.

Anderson said Postal Inspector T.F. Kochman, who is based in Harrisburg, Pa., placed an ad on a group section of Yahoo titled "teenswithoutclothes" that described the videos as the "hottest, youngest amateur girls learning about sex."

The prosecutor said Riedl sent an e-mail for more information about the videos and was told in graphic detail by Kochman that they depicted children engaged in various sex acts.

Anderson said Riedl mailed $100 in cash for four tapes in April 2003 and requested that they be delivered to him at Kelly Walsh. During subsequent e-mails Riedl directed that the videos be labeled so they appeared to contain Olympics material, Anderson said.

U.S. Postal Service agents came to Kelly Walsh at 5 p.m. on Sept. 25, 2003, and notified school officials that they needed to close and examine a classroom as part of an investigation. They recovered four blank tapes that had been mailed as directed by Riedl, Anderson said. The next day three postal inspectors returned and used crime-scene tape to seal off a room used for teleconferencing and as Riedl's classroom.

Riedl pleaded guilty to the charge on Sept. 13 of this year and was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson on Nov. 29 in Cheyenne. In addition to his five-month prison sentence, which he will begin serving Dec. 20, Riedl was ordered to pay a $250 fine and was given three years of supervised release.

Schools Superintendent Jim Lowham said the Natrona County School District was never notified about the results of the Postal Service investigation or that the former teacher had been charged with a crime. He said he learned about the sentencing Thursday when contacted by a reporter and called it "sad news."

"We're pretty much out of the loop," Lowham said. He noted that the investigation was not initiated by the school district.

Lowham said Riedl was employed by the district from August 1984 until May 2004, when his contract expired. He had been temporarily transferred from Kelly Walsh to the Central Services Facility in November 2003, but Lowham said the district cannot comment on personnel issues, which include circumstances surrounding reassignments and resignations.

In addition to his teaching duties at Kelly Walsh, Riedl served as the head volleyball coach from 1988-94 and 1999 and as an assistant track and girls basketball coach.

Lowham said the district takes the personal safety of its students "very seriously" and noted that there had been no complaints about Riedl's conduct by anyone during his employment with the district.

Anderson said the Postal Service sting resulted in the arrest of a number of people in the United States, but Riedl was the only one in Wyoming.

Assistant Managing Editor Kerry Drake can be reached at (307) 266-0588 or kerry.drake@casperstartribune.net.