LYKENS – A former Line Mountain teacher and head girls’ basketball coach was arraigned Friday on charges he had inappropriate sexual contact with nine teenage girls in the Upper Dauphin High School.

Michael Calnon, 42, of Elizabethville, who was fired by the Upper Dauphin School Board Oct. 14, faces seven counts of corruption of minors, four counts of indecent assault and three counts of unlawful contact with a minor, a felony.

During a press conference Friday afternoon at the state police barracks in Lykens, authorities presented documents filed by police detailing a pattern of Calnon sending inappropriate text messages and touching students in his classes over the past several years. Other girls came forward after one student went to police with text messages he had sent to her cell phone.

Calnon was the boys' head basketball coach at Line Mountain for from 1990 to 2000 before going to Upper Dauphin. He also taught math in the Line Mountain School District.

He was arraigned Friday morning in the office of District Judge Gregory D. Johnson, Dauphin, and released on $75,000 recognizance bail pending a preliminary hearing scheduled for Oct. 29. The other charges, all misdemeanors, will be sent out by summons.

State Police Public Information Officer Trooper Karl Schmidhamer and Dauphin County Chief Deputy District Attorney Sean M. McCormack held the press conference following the month long investigation of allegations that Calnon sent sexual text messages from his personal cell phone to eight of his female students aged 14 to 18. Another girl was 18 years old and no longer a minor.

McCormack said if anyone has any other information he would like to hear about it. He said he believes there are more students out there.

Officials said Calnon was a math teacher in the Upper Dauphin School District for eight years and also the high school boys’ basketball coach.