Grant County Sheriff's Department/WKRTA teacher in Kentucky has been charged with raping a 15-year-old student multiple times last year.
Kendall Burk, 23, a biology teacher at Grant County High School, was arrested on Wednesday (August 21) after a student told another teacher who then told administration. Police were immediately alerted.
Police allege the 23-year-old teacher began a relationship with the 15-year-old male student at the end of the last school year, with it turning sexual over the summer.
As reported by Local 12 WKRC-TV, Burk, who graduated from the University of Kentucky two years ago, was booked into the Grant County Jail on four counts of rape and four counts of sodomy.
Under Kentucky law, sodomy can mean oral sex. By definition, sodomy prohibits ‘deviate sexual intercourse’ with another person; deviate sexual intercourse covers ‘any act of sexual gratification involving the sex organs of one person and the mouth or anus of another’.
Grant County Sheriff, Brian Mains, said Burk admitted to having sex with the 15-year-old boy twice at her parents’ home – where she lived in Dry Ridge – and two more times in her car.
He continued:
Our deputies, at that point, once they were alerted, interviewed some other students who had made the allegations and worked backwards, interviewing the victim as well as the teacher.
Grant County Sheriff's DepartmentSuperintendent Matthew Morgan sent parents a letter on Thursday confirming Burk’s arrest and saying she has been ‘removed from duties’.
Morgan continued:
High school administration received notice of allegations of inappropriate conduct between a teacher in our district and a student.
The district followed proper protocol for a preliminary investigation and notified the School Resource Officer (SRO); the Grant County Sheriff’s Office subsequently followed with their investigation…
While these events, of course, sadden us, our first priority – and that of the law enforcement with whom we work – is and must always be the protection and safety of our students.
We express our appreciation to those who worked with us to this end.
This is the letter Grant County schools is sending parents after one of its teachers, Kendall Burk, 23, was charged with having sex with one of her 15 yr old students 4 times over the summer. Burk has been fired from Grant County HS. #GrantCounty #ChildRape #SexualAbuse pic.twitter.com/wOUFz05baZ
— Local12David (@Local12David) August 22, 2019
The district says Burk, who had only been teaching at Grant County High School for two years, has been fired.
She faces between one to five years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000 if found guilty of rape in the third degree, a class D felony whereby a person engages in sexual intercourse when the other person is under the age of 16 and the defendant is 21 years old or older.
The 23-year-old posted bail on Thursday afternoon (August 22), and is due back in court on Monday (August 26).
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A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).