NASHUA, N.H. -- A Lowell High School teacher was arrested and charged with the rape of several young women.

NewsCenter 5's Jack Harper reported that the veteran teacher, who heads the math department at Lowell High, was charged with 30 counts of sexual assault in a Nashua courtroom on Wednesday.

Severine Wamala, 45, of Nashua, was arraigned on 19 counts, including 11 counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault. The charges come from three women -- two teens and one 20-year-old.

Each of the 30 charges carries a maximum of 10 to 20 years in prison.

"Chief (Ed) Davis informed me that Mr. Severine Wamala, department for mathematics at Lowell high school, was to be arrested later that day by the Nashua police," said Lowell Public Schools Superintendent Karla Baehr.

All three women, who were not students, said the assaults occurred over a period of time, investigators said.

"These are not random acts and they do not involve his employment at this point in time. We have not looked into it ourselves yet, we intend to. But I want to make sure that the parents in the city understand that every bit of information that we have now indicates that these were acts that occurred consistent with the charges that were levied against him in Nashua, and it did not have anything to do with his employment," said Lowell Police Chief Ed Davis.

Walmala, a native of Uganda, came to the United States in 1988. He became a citizen and earned a doctorate from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell.

Wamala's record includes a misdemeanor charge from 10 years ago. But in arguing for lower bail, Wamala told the judge he has been in court 100 times and would not flee.

"The judgment of our personnel office at that time was that one misdemeanor conviction more than 10 years earlier should not lead to termination, absent of some other on-the-job information that we did not have," Baehr said, adding the employee review process would be examined.

Wamala was suspended with pay from Lowell High pending the outcome of the investigation.

Wamala was ordered held on $1 million bail.