We have previously reported on how some media organizations deliberately conceal facts about the sexual abuse of minors, but at least noted that now-convicted former teacher and coach April Bradford at least got some/i> time behind bars, though 3½ years seems awfully light for having sexually abused two female students, including during the students’ middle school years, aged under 14-years-old.
Well, 3½ years is more than no prison time at all!
By David Propper | Monday, January 29, 2024 | 8:19 AM EST
A New Jersey teacher who had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old female student evaded prison time last week after her former students sent letters of support to the court ahead of her sentencing.
Unlike so many media organizations, the New York Post did not conceal that the sexual relationship was homosexual in nature. Grooming, anyone?
Ex-Fair Lawn High School graphics arts teacher Christine Knudsen was placed under lifetime parole supervision and forced to register as a sex offender, but won’t see a day behind bars if she doesn’t violate the terms of the sentencing, according to the Bergen Record.
She’s also reportedly prohibited from having any contact with her victim as part of a three-year suspended sentence tied to her illicit sexual relationship with the teenage student that lasted nearly a year in 2017.
The relationship was technically legal because the victim was the age of consent, but for the sentencing, the student was considered a child, the local newspaper reported.
Am I an [insert slang term for the anus here] for suggesting that any school district which hires a teacher with tattoos like that ought to be liable for that teacher’s crimes?
“Parents send their kids to school every day, trusting they will be safe in the care of their teachers,” Bergen County Judge Nina Remson said Wednesday, according to the outlet. “And there is a very strong need to deter not only Ms. Knudsen, but all citizens from violations of the law, especially in this nature involving a breach of trust between the teacher and the student.”
I would point out here that Miss Knudsen is listed in other sources — the Post did not include this — as being 46 years old, and when the abuse occurred in 2017, would have been 39 years-old. This isn’t some Romeo and Juliet type age difference, but Josh Kruger/Robert Davis level stuff.
Knudsen pleaded guilty in July to reckless endangerment after she was initially charged with sexual assault in 2021. She met the victim when the student joined the school’s drama club, which she advised, the Record reported.
The former educator’s lawyer in court last week blamed multiple troubles in her life, including substance abuse, for the inappropriate relationship.
“(S)ubstance abuse”? Is Miss Knudsen an alcoholic, or was she using stuff for which she could and should have been drug tested? Shouldn’t all teachers be subject to routine drug testing?
Knudsen, who taught for two decades, had a positive influence on her classes, according to letters of support from ex-students, Assistant Prosecutor Stephen Bollenbach said, though he pointed out the relationship with the victim violated the trust between educator and pupil.
He described the plea deal as “justice tempered with mercy.”
Yeah, uh huh, right. It certainly is not justice tempered with deterrence!
Of course, there probably is some deterrence there, because who would think that a 39-year-old male teacher who seduced a 17-year-old female student would just get probation?
