Teacher Denies Sexual Abuse

A Canfield Middle School teacher who also coached two baseball teams pleaded innocent Monday to charges that he inappropriately had touched two female students.

Paul T. Mather, 49, entered the pleas in 1st District Court to two felony counts of sexual abuse of girls 13 and 14 years old. A Dec. 16 trial is scheduled.

The students said Mather had touched their breasts and buttocks as he hugged them last school year, prosecutors allege. The girls had served as aides in Mather’s classroom.

Mather, who has coached varsity baseball for Coeur d’Alene High School, was suspended with pay by the Coeur d’Alene School District on June 10 pending an investigation.

In July, Mather agreed to take a leave of absence as coach of the Atlas Building Center Lumbermen AA American Legion baseball team.

, DataTimes