A Morton High School teacher is in jail after being convicted of assault late last month for inappropriately touching four of his female students in 2008.
Michael R. Moulton, 55, pleaded guilty to four counts of assault against four different female victims by way of Alford plea Sept. 24, meaning he doesn’t assume guilt but agrees that the evidence against him would lead to a guilty verdict at trial.
He was sentenced to 20 days in Lewis County Jail.
Morton School District officials put Moulton on administrative leave following a student and her parents’ complaints that he had been rubbing her and her friends’ shoulders at least two times a week in 2008, according to court documents. Three out of the four students said Moulton kept rubbing and touching their shoulders, despite continued demands that he stop.
One girl told Morton Police officers that she was put in detention for telling Moulton to “get his (expletive) hands off of me,” according to the documents. Another victim alleged most girls in Moulton’s class would wear jackets in school so he wouldn’t stare at their chests.
During interviews, Moulton told officers the touching was “more along the lines of ‘good job’ or other encouragement with a pat or touch” rather than inappropriate behavior, according to the documents. He also said he believes the students were trying to get him in trouble with the law.
More than a dozen other students have filed complaint statements against Moulton dating back to 1997, all from the Morton School District where he’s taught for 18 years.
Former district Superintendent John Flaherty acknowledged in a 2005 letter that Moulton had made inappropriate contact with 10 different students.
“This letter will serve as a reprimand for poor professional judgment,” Flaherty wrote to Moulton in November of 2005. “I sincerely hope that no incidents of this nature happen again.”
Former Superintendent Richard Lutz also reprimanded Moulton with a letter in May 1997. Lutz alleged that there was merit to students’ complaints that Moulton asked them to rub his back on multiple occasions.
“It is not appropriate to have a student rub or scratch your back for any reason,” Lutz wrote. “It is demeaning and can be construed to have sexual overtones.”
No further action was taken in either case.
Moulton’s family declined to comment.
Current Superintendent Tom Manke said Moulton’s employment status is “yet to be decided.”
Andy Campbell: (360) 807-8208
sunshinegirl
I lived in Morton for about a year, kind of a rough town, The whole Moulton family is strange and everyone talks about them. Moulton was'nt just inapropriate with the female students. He was down right mean to new students. He harasses a child I knew, repeatedly telling him to go back to where he came from, now how would you like to be new in town and in junoir high, and on top of all that have a teacher talk like that to you in front of everyone? People have complained about him for years, but I agree with the last comment, he is lucky he did not have one of my grandkids to abuse as he would have learned a new kind of rough, mtgranny style, what a creep!! And how many little girls did not speak up?? I say he's had a long enough run leave him in jail.