A former Belton ISD Teacher of the Year was sentenced to more than six years in federal prison for possessing child sexual abuse material.
Pietro Victor Giustino, 40, was arrested in July 2025 by the FBI after he was caught with images of children being subjected to sexual intercourse.
Giustino pleaded guilty in March 2026 to one count of possession of visual depictions of sexual activities by minors.
On October 21, U.S. District Judge Christopher Wolfe sentenced Giustino to 78 months in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release.
According to prosecutors, in September 2024 Giustino sent bitcoin to a vendor in exchange for child sexual abuse material (CSAM). In June 2025, the FBI executed a federal search warrant at Giustino’s residence in Belton and discovered devices and media containing thousands of CSAM images that included prepubescent minors.
Giustino was a teacher at Belton High School in the Belton Independent School District from 2011, when he first became a certified science teacher, until his arrest by federal authorities.
In 2022, Giustino was named Belton ISD’s Career and Technical Education Teacher of the Year.
Following his federal arrest, Belton ISD trustees voted to terminate Giustino’s contract for cause. Superintendent Malinda Golden stated that there was no indication Giustino’s crimes involved Belton students or occurred on district property, although Giustino traveled off campus with students to school-related events.
However, Giustino was arrested again in September 2025 on two state charges of invasive visual recording after FBI investigators also discovered 13 cellphone videos of female Belton High School students that the teacher had recorded in a classroom without the girls’ knowledge.
Giustino is due back in the 426th District Court on January 8, 2027, for a pretrial hearing in the state’s cases against him.
Giustino’s teaching certificate was placed on “indefinite suspension” in December 2025. Once the criminal cases against him are finally resolved, the State Board for Educator Certification will determine if revocation is warranted. He was also added to the state’s Do Not Hire Registry as “not eligible for hire.”
In just the past few years, hundreds of Texas school employees have been accused of sex crimes involving students and other children, including several in Belton ISD.
In March 2025, Tarver Elementary School teacher Estevan Banda was arrested for indecency with a child by sexual contact involving a fourth grade student, and South Belton Middle School teacher Logan Michael Demeny was charged with sexually assaulting an underage student multiple times in 2021.
Also in 2025, former Lake Belton High School athletic trainer Trevor Swift was sentenced to seven years in federal prison for possessing child sexual abuse material featuring victims as young as five years old. Swift was arrested in 2022 after students caught him watching child porn at school.
In 2020, South Belton Middle School orchestra director Lydia Christensen went to federal prison for possessing and distributing child pornography showing victims under the age of 12 engaged in sex acts.
Belton High School computer science teacher James Alleman III pleaded guilty in 2019 to having child porn on his school computer after he projected it onto a screen during a class. District officials called it an “inappropriate use of technology.”
The TEA is currently investigating thousands of educator sexual misconduct complaints. Overall misconduct reports tripled in 2026 compared to 2025.
