Two School Employees Arrested on Sex Abuse Charges

Two Montgomery County school employees -- one former, one current -- arrested Monday on charges involving minors

Two Montgomery County school employees -- one former, one current -- were arrested Monday on charges involving minors.

Aaron William Murray La Mere has been charged with possession of child pornography, and inappropriate contact with two students between October 2011 and February.

He had resigned that month from his job as a media services technician at Northwood High School in Silver Spring.

Police say three students at the school were the victims of various sex offenses by La Mere.

Cuyler Jay Cornell, 50, was also arrested Monday. He's been charged with having inappropriate contact with a minor.

Cornell, a staff member at Neelsville Middle School in Germantown, has been on administrative leave since February.

Investigators say Cornell had befriended a 14-year-old student during the 2010-2011 school year when the victim was a student in Cornell's classroom. Cornell began visiting the victim's home and spending time with the victim "outside the realm of school activities," the Montgomery County Police Department said in a release Monday.

"The relationship between Cornell and the victim continued when the school year ended, and detectives believe that it was during the summer of 2011 that Cornell inappropriately touched the victim on two occasions," the release said.

Witnesses noticed what they thought was inappropriate contact between them and notified school administrators."

Parents of students there will receive a recorded phone call Monday night to inform them about Cornwell's arrest.

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