LEWISTON – An Auburn elementary school teacher admitted to police that he sometimes put his hand up the skirts of young girls in his class, according to court records.

James G. Raymond Jr., 26, of Auburn was arrested Tuesday and charged with unlawful sexual touching, a class D misdemeanor. It is punishable by up to a year in jail.

Raymond told a local police detective that he didn’t remember the incident for which he was charged, involving a 7-year-old pupil at Park Avenue Elementary School, where Raymond was a music teacher, Detective Chad Syphers wrote in an affidavit.

The student told police that during a music class in early October, Raymond had moved her from her spot in a semicircle to sit next to him. She said he slid his hand up her skirt and touched her buttocks through the outside of her underwear.

She told Syphers that Raymond’s contact wasn’t an accident. The girl had told her mother after school what happened. The mother told the girl she would report it to the school, but later had second thoughts, fearing it could ruin Raymond’s teaching career. She decided to wait to see whether there was a repetition of the behavior.

In the meantime, however, the girl told school staff about the incident, and it was reported by them to police. The girl has stuck by her story.

She was “able to distinguish the difference between the truth and a lie,” Syphers wrote in his affidavit.

In an interview with Raymond on Oct. 24, Syphers said the teacher at first claimed any touching was accidental or innocent in nature. But he later confided that he had an attraction to female students from kindergarten age to third grade. He “didn’t deny having inappropriate contact” with some of them, Syphers wrote.

Raymond told the detective that 95 percent of the time he was satisfied to get a hug from a student. It was the remaining 5 percent of the time that posed a problem, according to the affidavit.

Raymond said, “There’s a little voice telling him” to engage in that behavior, Syphers wrote. On those occasions, Raymond “tries to control himself, but he is unsuccessful some of the time,” the detective wrote.

Most incidents occurred during music class because all the girls would want to sit next to him, the affidavit said.

Raymond said he never touched the vaginal areas of the girls.

Although he didn’t remember touching the 7-year-old girl who made the complaint, Raymond didn’t deny it happened, Syphers wrote.

Raymond told Syphers he had been reported to the school in connection with an incident in the previous school year in which he said he and a female pupill tickled each other around the midsection. The girl felt uncomfortable with the situation, Raymond told the detective, and went to her parents, who contacted the school. The school handled that in-house, he said.

He also told Syphers a federal agency was investigating him for his online activity involving child pornography and that he had bought memberships at child pornography Web sites. His personal computer had been turned over to federal agents as part of that investigation, which is ongoing, he told Syphers.

Interim Auburn schools Superintendent Tom Morrill said Raymond had been placed on administrative leave immediately after allegations of misconduct arose.

Arrested Tuesday, Raymond was booked and released from Androscoggin County Jail late that night on $5,000 cash bail. He is due in 8th District Court on Nov. 21 for his initial appearance.

Conditions of his release include:

• no direct or indirect contact with persons under the age of 18;

• not to be on property of the Auburn School Department; and

• not to attend any Auburn School Department events.

Raymond is a teacher at Park Avenue and East Avenue elementary schools. He is also an assistant marching band instructor at Leavitt Area High School, founder of the Central Maine Children’s Theatre Project, and is listed as an instructor of the Central Maine Children’s Chorus, part of the SAD 52 Adult and Community Education Program.

No one answered the door at Raymond’s home Wednesday night.