Niagara Regional Police have charged a high school teacher in connection with a sexual assault investigation involving two female students.
Police say the investigation began in December at A. N. Myer Secondary School in Niagara Falls, Ont.
District School Board of Niagara spokeswoman Kim Yielding says police were contacted when a complaint was brought to an administrator at A. N. Myer on Dec. 18.
Police say the investigation focuses on reports of alleged “inappropriate sexualized behaviour” by a teacher involving two female students under the age of 18 — one at A. N. Myer and a second at Sir Winston Secondary School in St. Catharines.
They say the alleged incidents occurred “on and off school property and during and after school hours.”
Investigators say the teacher worked at A. N. Myer starting in 2013, and taught at Sir Winston Churchill before that, from 2009 to 2013.
Thirty-one-year-old Michael J. Molnar, of Pelham, is charged with two counts of sexual assault and one count each of sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching and sexual exploitation.
He’s due in court Tuesday in St. Catharines.
Yielding says Molnar has been suspended with pay since Dec. 18. She says youth counsellors and social workers will be on hand at the two schools in the coming days.
Police say their investigation is ongoing and are asking anyone involved in or who know of a similar alleged incident to contact them.