A Montgomery County Public Schools employee was arrested for allegedly recording students changing at Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda, Montgomery County Police said Thursday.

James Mulhern III, of Clarksburg, is charged with sex abuse of a minor after two students at the school found a video camera in a control booth at the school’s theater on Wednesday.

“One of the students viewed the contents of the memory card and saw videos recorded inside the girls’ changing room in the theater area,” police said in a news release.

The video also showed a man placing a camera and leaving the room while it was recording. Shortly after, “teenage girls entered the room and began changing clothes for a theater performance,” according to the release.

A student emailed the videos to the school’s principal, who identified the suspect as Mulhern, 43, a media services technician at the school, police said.

A school district spokesperson provided The Banner with a Thursday letter to the high school community from Principal Nicole Morgan.

The letter said a staff member, who was not named, “has been placed on leave without pay, effective immediately, pending the outcome of an investigation” by police.

Morgan’s letter also said that it’s the school’s priority to support its students and staff, noting that school counselors, psychologists and social workers will be available for anyone who needs their services.

Mulhern’s job duties include teaching students about equipment and lighting. He also provided tech support for plays and musicals at the high school, according to court records related to his criminal case.

When Mulhern spoke to police, he initially denied any wrongdoing, but then acknowledged that he was the man seen in screenshots from a video showing a man setting up a camera in a changing room and then returning to turn it off.

He also told police he had an inappropriate “attraction to multiple students while working at Walter Johnson High School,” court records said.

Detectives on Wednesday executed a search warrant at the high school, “where items of evidentiary value were recovered,” police said.

Electronic devices were also collected from Mulhern’s home via a search warrant. Mulhern is jailed in the Montgomery County Central Processing Unit. A bond hearing is scheduled for Friday.

It was not immediately clear if Mulhern had retained an attorney.