Ex-Teacher Already in Prison for Sexually Assaulting Student Accepts Plea

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A former teacher already serving time for having sex with a student pleaded guilty to third-degree sexual assault in Macomb County Wednesday.

The Macomb County charges against Kathryn Ronk, 30, of Birmingham involve the same student she was convicted of sexually assaulting in Oakland County.

Prosecutors said the ongoing relationship between the two took place in Ronk’s classroom at Bishop Foley Catholic High School in Madison Heights, where she was a Spanish teacher, as well as in the 15-year-old male victim’s Macomb Township home and a parked car in Sterling Heights, also in Macomb County.

In the previous proceedings, Oakland County Circuit Judge Nanci Grant made an example of Ronk, and sentenced her to between six and 15 years in prison. Ronk had pleaded guilty to two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct and expected leniency after supporters sent Grant a flurry of letters.

Grant, however, said she was put off by the volume of letters of support for Ronk that mentioned “nothing about the victim.”

“They were all about you and what you were going through. Poor you. To ignore a crime and a victim and an ongoing involvement in school, outside school, in a car. You did something you shouldn’t have done,” Grant said.

Ronk appeared for her hearing in Macomb County, where she previously had rejected a plea deal, wearing a pink and blue prison jumpsuit. She will be sentenced on July 1.

Prosecutors said Ronk initiated the relationship with the student in December 2013. It continued until January 2014, when the student’s parents learned of it and told school officials.

Related:

• Police: Fired School Teacher Had Sex with Student
• School Teacher Pleads Guilty to Sex with Student
• Judge Denies Leniency to Teacher Who Had Sex with Student
• Teacher Convicted of Sex with Student Rejects Plea Deal