JAY — A court hearing has been set for late September for a former teacher at Spruce Mountain High School who is charged with assault for allegedly striking a female student.
Michael Morrell, 43, is to appear on Sept. 30 in Androscoggin County Superior Court in Auburn. Jay police issued him a summons on May 26. According to the summons, the incident occurred on May 21.
Morrell taught chemistry at the high school and was a coach for the Spruce Mountain track and field team. Sources told Monitor Local that the alleged incident between Morrell and the student happened at a track meet.
The summons issued to Morrell lists the assault charge as a Class C offense, defined in state law as action by a person who “intentionally, knowingly or recklessly causes bodily injury or offensive physical contact to another person.”
On June 2, Superintendent Scott Albert acknowledged that an investigation was underway but declined to comment on the incident. Spruce Mountain High School Principal TJ Plourde also declined comment.
On June 25, the Regional School Unit 73 Board of Directors unanimously accepted Morrell’s resignation in a vote that took less than a minute, without comment. Albert again declined comment at that time.
Earlier that day, Morrell was listed on the faculty page on the RSU 73 website, but that listing was gone the next morning.
Monitor Local emailed Morrell for comment before the board accepted his resignation. He has not replied, and the email address posted for him at that time no longer exists.
Morrell had a long association with RSU 73. Before becoming a teacher at Spruce Mountain, Morrell taught science at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School in Paris.
While teaching at Oxford Hills in 2019, Morrell served as vice chairman of the RSU 73 Board of Directors.
Monitor Local learned of the allegations against Morrell on June 1 from a source who shared there was “a science teacher at the high school currently on administrative leave. He is being investigated for putting hands on a female student in anger.”
Monitor Local has contacted nine people who work or have worked for the district or have had some other direct connection with the district. All have declined to comment on the record, but some have offered information on a not-for-attribution basis.
One person reported that Morrell “touched a female student.” Another source used stronger language and said, “he assaulted a female student.” A source also said, “he put his hands on her twice.”
One source said the girl had bruises from the incident. A person claiming to know the girl’s family said the girl didn’t need to visit a hospital or see a physician.
According to a source close to the family, Principal Plourde “has been nothing but supportive (of the girl and her family) through it all.”
Albert said after the June 25 meeting that, under a new Maine law passed earlier this year, an investigation into any action of a school employee becomes part of the employee’s permanent record and must be reported to the Maine Department of Education.
The law also requires school districts to complete investigations even if the employee being investigated has left the district.
Albert told Monitor Local on Monday that he has completed the Morrell investigation and sent the report to the DOE.
Albert wrote in an email, “I needed to let them know when I started the investigation. So as soon as he (Morrell) was put on paid leave, I contacted the state. I then contacted the state when he resigned with all of the information I had from the investigation.”
The new law, which was sponsored by Sen. Peggy Rotundo, D-Androscoggin, requires school administrators to ask the education department for records of investigations involving applicants for a school job.
Rotundo’s legislation, which became law in April, followed a constituent’s complaint that an administrator in Lewiston was working at a school there after having been accused of sexual harassment twice at other schools.
Before Rotundo’s legislation, school administrators were not required to report the results of investigations to the state, or even to finish an investigation if an employee left the district before the investigation was complete. And, the department was not required to divulge the results of such investigations to potential employers, as it is now.
Those records are only available to potential employers and not to the general public.
This story was updated July 28 to correct the name of the principal; it is TJ Plourde not PJ Plourde.
