Former Teacher Sentenced for Sexually Assaulting Student

KHON
March 12, 2015

http://khon2.com/2015/03/11/former-teacher-sentenced-for-sexually-assaulting-student/

[with video]

A teacher who sexually assaulted a student while he working at Sacred Hearts Academy will never teach again.

William Plourde was sentenced Wednesday to a year in prison for the assaults.

The victim was a student at Sacred Hearts when the assaults happened in 2013 and has had to deal with the emotional scars his assaults left behind.

“Mr. Plourde was a teacher that I trusted. Instead of a teacher who taught me right, he left me with a burden. He left me with a burden of being a sexual assault,” the victim said. “Teachers are not supposed to tell their students, ‘Don’t tell anyone or else I will get in trouble.’ And Mr. Plourde did.”

“As parents, we expect teachers to be role models and we trust that they will do the right thing, not the wrong thing. Mr. Plourde is not a role model and he did wrong.” said the victim’s mother.

In December 2014, Plourde pleaded guilty to seven counts of third-degree sex assault.

The prosecutor’s office asked for 10 years in jail. Plourde’s attorney wanting probation, saying his client had taken full responsibility.

Plourde offered up an apology to his victim and the family: “I am so sorry. I apologize wholeheartedly and to the Sacred Hearts community.”

In the sentence handed down by Judge Glenn Kim, Plourde gets one year in jail. He also gets five years probation and has to register as a sex offender as part of that probation.

“He will no longer be a teacher and he will be a registered sex offender for the rest of his life and he won’t have access to children the way he has for the past 29 years,” said deputy prosecutor Kristen Yamamoto.

Plourde was a theology teacher at the school for 29 years. He was fired after his arrest.