Former Woodstock Teacher Sentenced For Sexually Assaulting Students

WOODSTOCK, GA — A former Woodstock High chorus teacher was sentenced recently after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting students in 2018, Cherokee County Acting District Attorney Susan K. Treadaway said Friday in a news release.

Ryan Parker McKendrick, 40, pleaded guilty on Feb. 9 to nine counts of sexual assault of a student, specifically being accused of touching and groping six high-school students under the age of 18, Treadaway said.

McKendrick was sentenced to 20 years, with the first three years to serve in prison and the remainder on probation under sex offender special conditions. He is forbidden to have contact with the victims or minors under the age of 18, Treadaway said.

He was investigated in September 2018 after Woodstock High administrators were alerted to a text conversation involving McKendrick and two girls in 2017 and 2018, she said.

The victims gave impact statements in court, Treadaway said.

“When these crimes came to light, the girls were abundantly clear about what the defendant had done to them," Assistant District Attorney Leyna Pope, of the Special Victims Unit, said in the release.

"Sadly, some members of the community and their peers discounted their experiences, even suggesting any touching was accidental. However, the facts showed that the defendant’s actions were unlawful. He groomed not only these girls, but also everyone around him so that he could continue to engage in this troubling behavior. It was a privilege to stand beside these girls as they finally got to address the man who abused them.”

McKendrick became Woodstock High's chorus teacher in 2007.