Ex-Catholic school teacher gets 6-15 years in sex case

Kathryn Ronk once stood before students, teaching Spanish, at Bishop Foley Catholic High School in Madison Heights.

Today, the former teacher stood before a Macomb County judge, who sentenced her to 6 to 15 years in prison for sexually assaulting a male student in Macomb and Oakland counties over the course of several months.

"Teaching is such an honorable profession. What a terrible lesson, because you had a great job," Circuit Court Judge Mary Chrzanowski told Ronk, 30, of Birmingham when she sentenced her to prison to concurrently serve the same sentence Ronk received after making a similar plea in Oakland County Circuit Court.

Ronk pleaded guilty to two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct in both counties.

Some of the incidents involving the then 15-year-old Macomb Township boy happened in her classroom, others at the boy's home and in Sterling Heights. Authorities said she initiated the contact with the student in December 2013, with the Macomb County assaults occurring early last year.

Ronk, dressed in blue and orange prison garb, apologized to the victim and his family during sentencing before Chrzanowski.

"I take full responsibility," Ronk said, adding that now the cases are finally over everyone can move on.

Her attorney, James Thomas, told the court that Ronk knows she was in a position of trust and that "she breached that trust."

"She is humbled. She is contrite," he said, adding after the hearing that the defense had nothing more to say.

Assistant Prosecutor John Gemellaro spoke on behalf of the victim, saying Ronk was in a trusted relationship as a teacher and that she "exploited that all for selfish gain."

Chrzanowski, an aunt and sister of teachers, said what Ronk did "is a terrible blemish on the teaching profession."

"I think it touches everybody she dealt with in the school. I think it touched every parent in that school," Chrzanowski said. "She has a ripple effect on everyone in that school system."

A supporter of Ronk, who stood with her and Thomas, said there was an undiagnosed mental illness that Ronk is facing head-on and that Ronk is working to make herself a better person.

Chrzanowski encouraged Ronk to teach those in prison.

"Teach them right from wrong," she said.

Contact Christina Hall: chall99@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter: @challreporter.