Robert Clark Jr. Clark is also charged with three counts of false imprisonment for locking three of the boys in a garage or an office during the spankings, prosecutors said. As a condition of bail, Clark was ordered to have no contact with children who are not related to him, a move that could essentially shut down his school, which 70 to 80 children attend.
Protecting those kids is what's paramount," said Assistant District Attorney Todd Stephens, who sought a high bail for Clark. If convicted of the charges, Clark, who is not married and has no children, could face more than 50 years in prison. Cinekyd, authorities said, is a program for kids 7 to 17 who want to learn the art of radio, television and film production. According to Cinekyd's Web site, the program allows students to work on state-of-the-art equipment to create a weekly cable TV series and radio show and an annual feature-length project.
The business is in the block of Terwood Road. Cinekyd began in in Clark's basement, an outgrowth of his weekly dramatics course, according to the Web site. The program moved in to a small industrial campus in the Willow Grove section of Upper Moreland.
While girls also attend the school, the spankings involved only boys and were not part of any disciplinary action for misbehavior, according to authorities.
They were taken into a secluded room with the doors locked. They were told to drop their pants and they were spanked hard on their buttocks," Ferman said. Some of the spankings were called birthday spankings, but the behavior was not limited to just their birthdays. There is no evidence to suggest that Clark videotaped the spankings, prosecutors said.
