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More Girls Accuse Former 2nd-Grade Teacher of Sex Abuse in Delco

By Brad Segall and Jan Carabeo

GLENOLDEN, Pa. (CBS) -- The criminal case against a former second-grade teacher in Delaware County continues to grow as prosecutors file additional sexual assault charges.

Authorities say five more girls have come forward to say that 54-year-old Paul Hochschwender groped and indecently assaulted them inside a classroom at Darby Township Elementary School.  The Broomall man was already free on bail after being charged last month with assaulting three other young female students (see previous story).

Today, Delaware County DA Jack Whelan called cases like these heartbreaking.

"The last thing a parent wants to hear is that the very person that they expect to protect their child abuses that trust and violates that child," Whelan said.

He says one victim was, "Asked to read in front to the class and he picks her up and he puts her on the desk, keeping one his hands on her buttocks the entire time."

Four of the girls were seven-years-old at the time of the alleged abuse, the fifth is now 18-years-old and told prosecutors she was abused by Hochschwender when she was 10 and in the fifth grade.

Whelan says she reported the incident to authorities at the time but it was never pursued.

Hochschwender's attorney Art Donato says, "What we're going to do is we're going to analyze the facts and the law and we're going to investigate the case and proceed appropriately."

The DA says he is working with the school district on this investigation and they are cooperating. He says he is looking at what the school district did and what they knew about these allegations and if the district failed its students.

Hochschwender offered no comment when walking away from his arraignment.

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