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Cops: Teacher had sex with 14-year-old
A special-education teacher at South Philadelphia High School has been arrested on charges he had sex with a 14-year-old female student he met on MySpace, an Internet social-networking site.
Joshua Uhrich, 30, of Allentown, has been suspended without pay since criminal charges were filed against him yesterday.
Uhrich had been under investigation since Jan. 21, when the student's mother complained to police of sexual relations between the two, said Capt. John Darby, head of the police Special Victims Unit.
School District spokesman Fernando Gallard said Uhrich had been suspended immediately with pay and reassigned to a nonschool site. Now that he has been charged, Uhrich has been suspended without pay and the process to fire him will begin, Gallard said.
Darby said Uhrich was charged yesterday with statutory sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, unlawful contact with a minor, interfering with the custody of a minor, indecent assault and corrupting the morals of a minor.
The Daily News was unable to reach Uhrich for comment last night.
Darby pointed out that although the girl was a student at South Philly High, their relationship hadn't started as an "in-school association."
"The suspect met her on MySpace in January," Darby said. "Through the computer contact, they agreed to meet in person.
"At the beginning, there was no in-school contact between the two."
Darby said that a police investigation included a number of search warrants being issued for Uhrich's car, home and computer. However, he declined to go into details about what the investigation disclosed. *
