A North County high school teacher arrested on three child pornography counts faced a judge on Friday.
Joseph Zyburt, 55, pleaded not guilty to three felony counts.
Zyburt is court-ordered not to come within 1,000 feet of a school and any of his property can be searched at any time. His maximum sentence if convicted would be four years and his readiness hearing for trial will be in March.
The state began investigating Joseph Zyburt in September 2025. A felony complaint showed that he tried to buy child pornography between October 2024 and January 2025 and had child porn on his phone between last June and September. It also said Zyburt had child porn on his computer last September as well.
Zyburt was a math teacher at La Costa Canyon High and the San Dieguito Union High School District said they found out about the state investigating Zyburt in September.
The Department of Justice didn’t tell the district what the investigation was about, but he has been placed on administrative leave ever since.
Zyburt was also a part time math professor for 24 years at MiraCosta College. The school said he taught dual enrollment math classes under an agreement with the high school district and his last assignment there was in the summer of 2025.
“Oh, just insane, like disgusted,” said Jake Phillips, La Costa Canyon High student. “I don’t know how to describe it.
“It’s even weirder that we go to this school and I know that there’s teachers with child porn on their phone. It made me very uncomfortable,” said La Costa Canyon High student Hezekiah Chatham.
Joseph Anthony Zyburt, 55, worked at La Costa Canyon High School and was also employed last summer at MiraCosta College in Oceanside as a Calculus and Analytic Geometry II instructor. NBC 7’s Shandel Menezes has the details.