A third grade teacher at Severna Park Elementary School is set to stand trial starting Monday on allegations that he sexually abused eight students.

Matthew Schlegel, 45, of Severna Park, is charged in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court with sexual abuse of a minor, third- and fourth-degree sex offense and second-degree assault. He’s facing a total of 55 counts. Schlegel maintains his innocence.

Jury selection is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. in the case. Circuit Judge Pamela K. Alban is presiding over the trial. The trial is scheduled for four weeks.

Schlegel’s trial team, Peter O’Neill, Patrick Seidel and Andrew Harvey, declined to comment because the case is pending.

Assistant State’s Attorney Anastasia Prigge, chief of the Special Victims Unit in the Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney’s Office, and Assistant State’s Attorney Sean Fox are prosecuting the case.

“With it being a pending matter, we’re not going to be commenting at this time,” said Will Cockey, public information officer for the Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney’s Office.

The allegations cover a period from Aug. 1, 2022, to March 31, 2024.

Child protective services workers conducted forensic interviews of eight female students, who reported that Schlegel engaged in behavior during class that included touching their genitals over and under their clothes, Anne Arundel County Police allege.

Police arrested him on May 16, 2024, at his home.

Leading up to trial, prosecutors unsuccessfully moved to introduce evidence of other “bad acts.”

They wanted to call a 10-year-old girl who testified that Schlegel often rubbed her shoulders and back. She reported that she also sat on his lap multiple times.

Prosecutors also argued that Schlegel deviated from the curriculum and created an atmosphere of confusion and chaos in his classroom to distract students and give him the opportunity to sexually abuse them. But the judge expressed doubts that they had proven that allegation.

Some witnesses will be allowed to testify while a compassion dog is present but out of sight.

Schlegel started in 2007 as a temporary assistant. He became a full-time teacher in 2008 at Tyler Heights Elementary School, said Bob Mosier, a spokesperson for Anne Arundel County Public Schools.

In 2016, Schlegel, he said, moved to Severna Park Elementary School.

He’s suspended without pay.

In a letter sent home to families, acting Severna Park Elementary Principal Sharon Hansen wrote that Schlegel was reassigned as soon as the school system received the first allegation.

The school system, she said, “promptly turned the matter over to the appropriate law enforcement agencies and have been working with them since that time.”

“Mr. Schlegel has not been working in a position in which he has had contact with students since his reassignment,” Hansen said.

Schlegel is being held in the Jennifer Road Detention Center without bail.