Teacher Diddled Student Before Dinner with Husband

(Middlebury, Connecticut) Following up on a previous post about former Newtown High School guidance intern Jillian Gehrkens who has been charged with two counts of second-degree sexual assault and one count of risk of injury to a minor for engaging in a yearlong affair with a 15-year-old male student. According to a report in the Republican-American, some details of the alleged sexual relationship have been released in the arrest warrant.

Although the two met while the student was 15, the warrant was unclear whether the alleged relationship became sexual before the student's 16th birthday, which was sometime in April 2004.

Even so, a sexual relationship between a student and public school employee is considered sexual assault even if the student is age 16, Police Chief Patrick J. Bona said Monday. People 16 or older are considered adults under state law.

Detailing the student's account of the relationship, the warrant said Gehrkens allegedly began driving the student to her Middlebury home after school for what the student called "sexual sessions."

He said she would then drive him home before his parents arrived home. Sometimes the student would stay for dinner with Gehrkens and her husband, Peter, and then go home, the warrant said.

Given that the Gehrkens were married in September 2002, it seems disenchantment set in quickly. Less than two years into the marriage, Gehrkens persuaded her pubescent pupil into participating in impromptu pickle parties. Afterward, Gehrkens, her husband, and the boy would sit down and have dinner.

It's pretty sick, in my opinion.


[Update 01/09/07]

Gehrkens pleads guilty. Sentencing in March 2007.


[Update 07/27/07]

Gehrkens sentenced.