A Quebec gym teacher acquitted on 34 counts of sexual touching after several students accused him of inappropriate behaviour has returned to work at the school where he has taught for more than three decades.

Teacher Henri Fournier says a jealous squabble between students escalated into accusations against him. (CBC)

Henri Fournier said it was "emotionally very hard" to go back to Notre Dame de l'Assomption Elementary School in Chateauguay, from which he had "left running and hiding" almost two years ago when a rash of complaints surfaced from young girls at the institution southwest of Montreal.

A rumour began circulating at the school in February 2008, involving 19 girls aged eight to 13, who accused Fournier of inappropriately touching girls, sometimes in front of other students.

Officials at the school took the allegations seriously and suspended Fournier without pay before he was arrested on the charges. He spent a week in detention.

"The week in prison was tough," Fournier said in an interview with CBC News. "After that, everybody's talking about you, you know some people looking at you, and thinking you're guilty, and in these cases, you're treated like you're guilty."

It took 20 months for his case to be heard by a Quebec court. Before the trial began, two of the girls recanted their stories. Then at trial, Fournier testified he thought a nasty squabble over jealousy between two girls spiraled into allegations against him.

During the trial, the presiding judge said that testimony from the young girls who accused Fournier contradicted each other. When he ruled to acquit Fournier, the judge said the actions described by the girls were not inappropriate acts of a sexual nature, but were part of the teacher's warm paternal approach with children.

After his acquittal, Fournier was warmly welcomed back to the school where he has taught for three decades. (CBC)

After his acquittal, Fournier negotiated with the Grandes-Seigneurs School Board to be reinstated, and his suspension was lifted. The board arranged his schedule to prevent him from teaching any of the students involved in the case, and several of them have gone on to other schools.

He told CBC's French-language service that it was easier for him to return to his old school than to start again in a new institution, where he might be treated with suspicion.

Fournier is now trying to obtain the pay he missed during his 20-month suspension, with the help of the teachers union.

He said his experience might deter male teachers from choosing to work in elementary schools, at a time when children need male role models in the classroom.

But the gym teacher is firm in his advice for other male teachers: "Don't change your style of teaching," he said. "The kids need to know you're with them."

Fournier's lawyer has said he could pursue police authorities and the Crown over how they handled the investigation. But Fournier said he just wants to return to a semblance of normal life and continue teaching until his retirement in a few years.

Police in Chateauguay will not comment on his case.