TOMS RIVER — A Toms River schoolteacher is in custody, accused of taking pornographic photographs of himself in his Toms River Intermediate North classroom and posting them to his public Twitter account, Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said Tuesday.

Kyle Banner, 48, of Brick, a teacher at Toms River Intermediate North and Ocean County College, surrendered to authorities Tuesday following an investigation that began a month ago, when administrators at Toms River Intermediate North were alerted to an alleged pornographic photograph posted to his public Twitter account, Billhimer said in a news release.

Banner was suspended without pay from his teaching position the following day as an investigation was launched.

The probe revealed that the pornographic photographs were taken in Banner's classroom at the Toms River intermediate school, Billhimer said in a news release.

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The prosecutor said that to his knowledge at this point, there were no students in the classroom when the photographs were taken.

However, the investigation by the prosecutor's Special Victim's Unit and High Tech Crime Unit, Toms River detectives and the Ocean County Sheriff's Crime Scene Investigation Unit determined that students viewed the photographs on Banner's Twitter profile and that Banner also sent inappropriate photographs of himself to a student on Snapchat, the news release said.

During the investigation, detectives recovered numerous images of Banner engaging in sexual conduct with himself in his classroom at Toms River Intermediate North, the news release said.

Banner is in the Ocean County Jail, awaiting a hearing to determine if he will be held without bail pending trial.

"I would encourage parents to have a conversation with their children if they had this defendant as a teacher,'' Billhimer said.

Anyone who has additional information about the case is urged to contact Toms River Detective Graham Borg at 732-349-0150 or prosecutor's Detective Stephanie Bayha at 732-929-2027, extension 3861.

Kathleen Hopkins, a reporter in New Jersey since 1985, covers crime, court cases, legal issues and just about every major murder trial to hit Monmouth and Ocean counties. Contact her at khopkins@app.com

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Toms River NJ: Teacher charged with taking, posting sex photos