Michael Burman, a former teacher at Horace Mann High School in North Fond du Lac, was charged in Fond du Lac County in February 2007 with 10 counts of sexual assault by school staff and 10 counts of child enticement. He had a relationship with a 17-year-old student that included more than 70 sexual encounters, many of which happened at school, the criminal complaint said.
According to USAToday, Burman faced more than 300 years in prison for the 20 felonies.
Instead, he took a plea deal, and was convicted on two counts of causing mental harm to a child. Eight counts of sexual assault of a student by school staff and 10 counts of child enticement were dismissed and read into the record at his sentencing.
Burman received six months in jail, was ordered to pay restitution and was placed on probation for five years.
The girl involved in the case testified in court and shed tears when she heard the terms of Burman's sentence, according to archives from The Reporter in Fond du Lac.
Burman isn't the only former educator to make waves and fade quietly into the background afterward.
According to USAToday, Burman faced more than 300 years in prison for the 20 felonies.
Instead, he took a plea deal, and was convicted on two counts of causing mental harm to a child. Eight counts of sexual assault of a student by school staff and 10 counts of child enticement were dismissed and read into the record at his sentencing.
Burman received six months in jail, was ordered to pay restitution and was placed on probation for five years.
The girl involved in the case testified in court and shed tears when she heard the terms of Burman's sentence, according to archives from The Reporter in Fond du Lac.
- A Milwaukee County judge dismissed charges against Emily L. Patterson, a former Mukwonago High School teacher and Brown Deer High School girls' soccer coach, in 2010. Patterson was charged with sex assault of a student by school staff after she had a relationship with a 16-year-old girl on the soccer team. She was no longer a coach when the case began. The judge dismissed the charge because she wasn't a school employee or volunteer as defined by state statute, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
- Andrea L. Ebert, a former teacher at Rice Lake Middle School, was sentenced to six months in jail, three years' probation and 500 hours of community service in a 2012 Barron County Case. Ebert was convicted of sex assault of a student by school staff — a felony — and a misdemeanor count of sex with a child age 16 or older.
- Christopher Wieber, a former Bay Port High School teacher, was charged with sexual assault of a student by school staff and child enticement in Brown County in 2013. He accepted a plea deal, and was convicted of causing mental harm to a child. He was sentenced to a year in jail with work release privileges and six years of probation.
- Daniel S. Markofski, a longtime Wisconsin educator, was a principal at an Illinois school at the time of his 2008 arrest in Milwaukee County. He was sentenced to one year in prison and 18 months of extended supervision on two counts of exposing a child to harmful material and a misdemeanor count of sex with a child age 16 or under. Parents at the Illinois school where Markofski was a principal "were upset" with his sentence, considering the charges he faced carried more jail time, the Northwest Herald of Crystal Lake, Ill. reported. The Milwaukee County judge who sentenced him, John Franke, resigned in late 2008 for reasons unrelated to the Markofski case, the Northwest Herald story said.
- Nathan E. Cox, a former Prairie Farm Middle School teacher, was sentenced to one year in prison and four years of extended supervision after he was convicted of child enticement-sexual contact with a student in Barron County in 2007.