Ex-Teacher Gets Another 6- to 15-Year Sentence for Sex with Student

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A former high school Spanish teacher already serving time for having sex with a student was sentenced to up to 15 years in prison Thursday on Macomb County charges stemming from the same relationship.

Kathryn Ronk’s new prison term will run concurrently with the identical 6- to 15-year prison sentence handed down in Oakland County Circuit Court in March, The Detroit News reports.

Ronk, 30, of Birmingham pleaded guilty to third-degree sexual assault in Macomb County Circuit Court in May.

Ronk was charged in both counties because she had sexual encounters with the 15-year-old male victim both at Bishop-Foley High School in Madison Heights, where she was a teacher, and at the victim’s home in Macomb Township

Catch Up On This Story:

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

On Thursday, Ronk reportedly gave a tearful apology to the victim and his family, but Macomb County Circuit Court Judge Mary A. Chrzanowski wasn’t swayed.

“I think this has touched every parent who had a child in that school,” Chrzanowski said. “They looked to her for guidance. It is very offensive what she did and it places a terrible blemish on the teaching profession.

“This has had a ripple effect on everybody, every parent, every child and every teacher.”

During her Oakland County sentencing in March, Circuit Court Judge Nanci Grant noted a double standardin her stern admonishment to Ronk.

If the case had involved a male teacher having sex with a 15-year-old female student, “there would be people here hanging from the ceiling trying to get every drop of blood,” Grant said during sentencing.

“But because it is a woman, there seems to be a winking about what happened,” she said.

Grant also said she was put off by the volumes of letters asking her to show leniency in her sentence.

“I have never seen letters of support for a defendant with nothing about the victim,” Grant said. “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.”