Kathryn Ronk weeps in court. (courtesy the Detroit News)

While some teachers get little or even no jail time for having sex with their students, a Michigan teacher will be spending a long time behind bars.

Kathryn Ronk, 30, of Birmingham, Michigan, was sentenced Tuesday to 6 to 15 years in prison for having sexual relations with a 15-year-old boy while she was a Spanish teacher at Bishop Foley Catholic High School in Madison Heights, Michigan.

According to the Detroit News, Ronk could have received up to life in prison under the original charges, but pleaded guilty last month to two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct under a sentencing agreement that ranged from no prison time to a maximum of 15 years. She’ll be eligible for parole in 5 and a half years.

Read the WND story that started it all! The big list: Female teachers with students

Judge Nanci Grant

Judge Nanci Grant noted Ronk had graduated with the highest of grades from the University of Michigan on a scholarship.

“You’re really very smart, an intelligent woman,” said the judge, reminding the teacher she had to know what she was doing with the sophomore student was improper.

Grant said she was disturbed by “a double standard in this society.”

“If this was a male teacher who had been involved with a 15-year-old female, there would be people here hanging from the ceiling trying to get every drop of blood,” Grant said. “But because it is a woman, there seems to be a winking about what happened.”

Before hearing her sentence, Ronk wept aloud, saying she was “so sorry for the victim and his family, for the school and the community, my family … and I’m so sorry for my husband.”

“With (psychological) treatment, I’m getting better,” she said. “I know I have to go away but this is a lifelong journey, and I am meeting it. … I’m so sorry for those who I have hurt.”

While Grant said she appreciated Ronk’s apparent contrition, the judge said she found offensive the letters of support she had received from the woman’s friends and family.

“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.”

Grant said the victim is “still a boy figuring out the ways in the world,” and may not feel the impact of the teacher’s actions “for years to come.”

Heather Brown, the assistant prosecutor in the case, said the boy’s family felt victimized and hoped Ronk “finds her faith and it will keep her strong. (Faith) is what is helping them and will help them forgive at some point.”

Ronk’s defense attorney James Thomas indicated Ronk was doing her best in a “very difficult situation,” receiving daily psychological treatment and working as a food-bank volunteer.

“There’s no chance of this happening again,” Thomas told the judge.”She will not be in a position to teach and will not be around children (after parole).”

Ronk still has more legal hurdles ahead, as she faces additional charges in Macomb Circuit Court, including rape and engaging in sexually abusive activity with children, involving the boy at his home in Macomb Township and in a car in Sterling Heights.

That trial is set for March 31.

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URL to article: http://www.wnd.com/2015/03/teacher-gets-long-prison-for-sex-with-teen/