High school AV tech charged for relationship with student

A high school technician was arrested on charges of having a sexual relationship with a 12th grade student who was under 18 during part of the relationship, investigators revealed Wednesday.

Michael Evan Morse, an audio visual technician at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School, was arraigned Wednesday on charges of institutional sexual assault, unlawful contact with minor, corruption of minors and tampering with evidence, the office of Montco D.A. Risa Vetri Ferman announced.

Morse allegedly had a sexual relationship with a 12th-grader at the high school where he worked as an AV tech.

Whitemarsh Township Police first received a report about “inappropriate communications” between Morse and the student on June 5.

The investigation found that the two between December 2014 and June 2015communicated via thousands of text messages and daily phone calls, with much of the communications being sexual in nature, according to prosecutors.

For part of that time, the student was under the age of 18, prosecutors say.

“An initial examination of the student’s cell phone showed that many of the text messages were deleted,” said astatement from the Montco D.A.’s office. “The student admitted that this was done at the direction of Morse. However, police were still able to recover the deleted text messages that ultimately corroborated the account provided by the student.”

Morse is being held at Montgomery County Correctional Facility on $50,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 22.