Teacher Pleads Guilty to Sex with Student

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A Birmingham woman who previously taught spanish at Bishop Foley High School in Madison Heights pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges relating to an ongoing sexual relationship with a student.

The Detroit Free Press reports that Kathryn Ronk, 30, pleaded guilty in Oakland County Circuit Court to two counts of criminal sexual conduct, charges that are punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Ronk had been charged with five counts of criminal sexual conduct, one of them in the first degree, charges that were punishable by up to life in prison.

Related:

• Police: Fired Female Teacher Had Sex with Student

“This was a predatory act,” Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper told the Free Press following the hearing. “This is a 15-year-old child. She was someone in a position of responsibility, who should have been protecting him.”

Ronk’s legal troubles aren’t over. The Oakland County charges stemmed from acts that took place in her Madison Heights classroom, but she faces additional charges in Macomb County.

The Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office has charged her with rape, engaging in sexualy abusive activity with children, and providing alcohol to a minor. Authorities there said she had sex with the boy in his Macomb Township home, and in a parked car in Sterling Heights.

Additionally, she’s charged in Macomb County with enticing the student to exchange sexually explicit images.

A March 31 trial date has been set on those charges.

Madison Heights police began investigating Ronk, a first-year teacher at the Catholic school in Madison Heights, last spring after the 15-year-old’s parents and the Rev. Gerry LeBouef, the president of the school, filed a complaint. The relationship had lasted from January to April 2014.

Ronk was fired shortly after the allegations were made public in June.