Kentucky teacher charged with rape and sodomy for having sex with 15-year-old male student multiple times
DRY RIDGE, KENTUCKY: A Kentucky teacher has been charged after she allegedly admitted to having sex with a teenage male student multiple times.
Kendall Burk, 23, a teacher of biology at Grant County High School, was arrested this past Wednesday, August 21, by the Grant County Sheriff's Office for having "multiple sexual encounters with the 15-year-old victim over the summer break off-campus," according to Local12.
The allegations emerged this past week after a student informed a teacher about Burk's indiscretions, who then informed the administrator. Following a quick investigation, the administrator informed the sheriff's office, who moved in to arrest the 23-year-old.
The GCSO alleged that Burk had begun the relationship with a 15-year-old male student at the end of school last year and that it became sexual over the summer.
Speaking about the case, Sheriff Brian Mains said, "Our deputies, at that point, once they were alerted, interviewed some other students who had made the allegations and worked backward, interviewing the victim as well as the teacher."
Mains said Burk admitted to having sex with the victim four times—twice at her parents' home where she lived in Dry Ridge and another two times in her car.
Burk, who is 2018 graduate from the University of Kentucky's College of Health Sciences with a degree in human health and had been teaching at the high school for two years, has been fired, the school district confirmed.
Grant County Schools Superintendent Matthew Morgan sent a letter to parents informing of the situation and insisted that their "first priority is and must always be the protection and safety of our students."
Burk has been charged with four counts of rape and four counts of sodomy in the third-degree connection to the incident.
According to Kentucky law, sodomy can include oral sex and is defined as deviate sexual intercourse with another person which covers "any act of sexual gratification involving the sex organs of one person and the mouth or anus of another."
Rape and sodomy in the third-degree are both Class D felonies in the state and are punishable by one to five years in prison. This means that, if Burk is convicted on all counts and sentenced to serve consecutively, she could face anywhere between eight and 40 years behind bars.
She was being held at the Grant County Detention Center before she posted a $50,000 bail on August 22. She is scheduled to make her next appearance in court on August 26.