Matthew Schlegel, a former third grade teacher at Severna Park Elementary School accused of inappropriately touching several students, will remain in jail for the final weeks before his trial in early December, a circuit court judge ruled Friday.

Schlegel, 44, was removed “indefinitely” from his classroom position in February, when the first allegations of sexual misconduct were made against him and placed in a role that kept him away from students in the Anne Arundel County school system.

In May, the 16-year veteran teacher’s home was raided by police and Schlegel was arrested.

Initially confronted with 36 charges, the product of a two-month investigation, Schlegel was soon indicted on 55, including 11 counts of child sex abuse and 18 counts of fourth-degree sex offense. According to court records, eight of Schlegel’s female students reported being touched by their teacher, sometimes under their desks or his, and other times in front of others. Four classmates of the alleged victims told authorities they had witnessed inappropriate behavior, court records show.

Twenty of the charges against Schlegel are felonies.

Friday’s hearing before Anne Arundel Circuit Judge Mark Crooks was the third unsuccessful attempt to release Schlegel from the Jennifer Road Detention Center since his arrest.

In court and in a filing earlier this month, defense attorney Peter O’Neill argued his client should be granted another bail review now that Schlegel’s team of lawyers has reviewed evidence in the case.

O’Neill wrote the defense believes there are “significant omissions and errors” between the initial charging documents and the evidence since compiled against Schlegel — the “largest amount of discovery” he has encountered in his 39-year career.

The allegations, he said, are “materially inconsistent” with the discovery his team has received, though in his filing, O’Neill refused to elaborate on what the differences are.

In court, however, the defense noted their belief that the students’ parents may have communicated with one another to coach their children before speaking to investigators. He also said in one instance, when a child was asked where she had been touched, her mother pointed to the area in question and that in another, a child said she had been touched by Schlegel “every day.”

With no adult witnesses from the school to corroborate any of the allegations, O’Neill said he found that unlikely.

Assistant State’s Attorneys Anastasia Prigge and Sean Fox said O’Neill’s assertions were “completely deficient in particularity” and on Friday, argued there were a “very limited number of small inconsistencies” between Schlegel’s indictment and the students’ interviews with child advocates.

To demonstrate this, they broke down the allegations against the teacher, showing which counts in the indictment they represented, and played interview clips from each child supporting the specific charges.

At one point, the judge stopped Fox’s presentation, saying he had “overwhelmingly” made his point and asked the prosecutor if he needed to continue showing the videos. Fox said yes, to show that each claim was supported.

“They haven’t watched the same videos we have, clearly,” Fox said.

Friday’s hearing was moved from Crooks’ regular courtroom to the largest in the Circuit Court. Dozens of people sat behind the prosecutors and watched the proceedings. As the clips continued, their bodies quivered. Sniffles mixed with the testimony. Sheriff’s deputies handed tissues to each bench. Some buried their face in their hands while others covered their mouths.

Schlegel is married with two children. Like the allies of the alleged victims, members of Schlegel’s family and a large group of supporters have attended many of his court appearances. Relatives, family friends, neighbors, a former coworker and a former student submitted letters to the court attesting to his character.

On Friday and in past hearings, O’Neill argued his client was not a flight risk, having spent his whole life in Maryland and having stayed in his Severna Park home for several weeks after learning about the investigation. Acknowledging families’ alarm about his client returning to their community, O’Neill suggested Schlegel could stay with his parents in Rockville.

The state said safety concerns would follow Schlegel anywhere he went, including Montgomery County.

“They can be perfectly fine people,” Prigge said of Schlegel’s parents. “But that doesn’t mean they can watch him 24/7.”

To close Friday’s hearing, Crooks noted the children had relayed “remarkably similar” experiences of abuse and that the inconsistencies were not enough to stray from his colleagues’ decisions concerning bail.

Noting an argument the defense made earlier in the hearing, suggesting that the nature of the detention center has limited his client’s ability to review evidence and participate in his defense, Crooks instructed the state to “be creative” in avoiding that issue. No one, the judge said, would benefit from that complaint after trial.

Schlegel’s first trial date is Dec. 3, according to the Maryland Judiciary.