FARIBAULT, Minn. — A former teacher at a Faribault prep school says he’s innocent of charges that accuse him of sexually abusing six male students.

Seventy-one-year-old Lynn Seibel says he misses teaching at Shattuck-St. Mary’s boarding school where he worked for more than a decade and was once named teacher of the year.

Seibel says he prays he will be acquitted and can return to acting in California. Police arrested Seibel in October after a former Shattuck-St. Mary’s student told a probation officer that he was sexually assaulted by the drama teacher. Seibel faces 17 felony counts in Rice County, including second-degree criminal sexual conduct.