River Ridge Wrestling Coach Arrested in Sexual Assault Incident with Student

A wrestling coach was arrested and charged with sexual assault of a student after he turned himself in to this morning.

Robert Leslie Morrow, 28, of Canton is in custody at the Cherokee Adult Detention Center with an $11,200 bond on one count of sexual assault by a person of authority, said Lt. Jay Baker, spokesman for the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office.

The sheriff's department and Woodstock Police Deparment conducted a joint investigation beginning this past December.

"According to the victim, the incident took place in December 2010 in Morrow’s vehicle in a local business park within the River Park Subdivision, located on Highway 5 near Sixes Road in Woodstock," said Brittany Duncan, spokeswoman of the Woodstock Police Department.

The 16-year-old victim was not one of Morrow’s students, but attended class in the same classroom where he worked, said Barbara Jacoby, spokeswoman for the Cherokee County School District.

Morrow is also a paraprofessional and the wrestling coach for the ninth and tenth graders. He is also a three-time individual state champion from Sequoyah High School, according to In The Game Magazine.

The student, who no longer attends Cherokee County schools, reported the incident to the Woodstock police July 26, Duncan said. At this point, the school district conducted an internal investigation and immediately placed Morrow on administrative leave, Jacoby said.

The victim told another teacher, Kristin May, 32, of Canton, about the incident in January of 2011, Baker said. May is legally responsible to report the incident to authorities. She was reassigned to a position without student contact by the school district after another internal investigation.

May was arrested at the school district print shop in Holly Springs and charged with failure to report this afternoon. She is in custody at the Cherokee Adult Detention Center with a $680 bond.

“The internal investigations remain underway,” Jacoby said. “As the internal investigations are pending and they involve personnel, no School District officials will make further comment on this matter at this time.”