Abusive Catholic Teacher Pleads Guilty

SNAP
May 21, 2015

http://www.snapnetwork.org/mi_abusive_catholic_teacher_pleads_guilty

Statement by SNAP leader Bill McAlary (616-514-0654, bllmack1@gmail.com)

We’re grateful that a child molesting Catholic school teacher has pled guilty to more crimes and we hope she’ll get a very stiff sentence that keeps her away from kids for a long time.

[greenfieldreporter.com]

Katheryn Ronk taught – and abused – at Bishop Foley High School in the Oakland County city of Madison Heights. She also faced charges in Macomb County, where some of her crimes took place.

All too often, child molesters are prosecuted in several jurisdictions but after one guilty plea, the other charges are dropped. This saves time for law enforcement officials but means that predators get out of prison sooner and can hurt more kids. We’re glad this didn’t happen with Ronk.

And all too often, child sex crimes by female predators are treated lightly. This is unwise, unhealthy and hurtful. Any time an adult – of any gender – assaults a child, it’s very devastating. And that adult should be punished harshly, along with anyone else who may have seen or suspected such crimes and kept silent or hid them.

Along those lines, we hope that law enforcement officials look hard at whether any current or former Catholic school staffers may have known about or suspected Ronk’s crimes and concealed or ignored them. This has happened in thousands of cases of abuse by Catholic church and school officials. It may have happened here.

We urge anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered child sex crimes or cover ups in the Detroit archdiocese – whether in a school or a parish, whether by a cleric or lay person – to call police, expose wrongdoers, protect kids, and start healing.