A Wisconsin school teacher has been arrested and charged with having a sexual relationship with an 11-year-old student after the boy’s mother found text conversations between him and his teacher on his phone.
Madison Bergmann, 24, is charged with sexually assaulting a child under age 13, WCCO reported.
Bergmann and the 5th grader at told authorities they shared phone numbers over winter break when the school teacher went skiing with the boy and his mother. The boy said the two communicated “almost daily” since that time, and Bergmann said she’d initially gotten the boy’s number in case they got separated at the ski slope.
The child’s mother found text messages between the two when she took his phone away upon catching him talking with Bergmann on the phone. The text messages included multiple messages discussing their encounters, which reported took place inside Bergmann’s classroom after school or during lunch.
Investigators reportedly found a folder with the victim’s name on it in Bergmann’s backpack. Inside were handwritten notes, many of them about kissing each other. The boy told investigators that they wrote frequent notes to each other during the day.
In one of the notes, Bergmann told the child they should stop their relationship.
“One of my cousins is in the 5th grade and I can’t imagine a man talking to her how we talk,” she wrote. “I know we have a special relationship and I do love you more than anyone in the world but I have to be the adult here and stop.”
Bergmann, who taught at River Crest Elementary School in Hudson, has been suspended and ordered to have no contact with students, staff, or parents in the Hudson School District, KARE reported. She is also barred from all district property and can attend no school activities.
The teacher was arrested on Thursday and promptly released on a $25,000 bond. She is due back in court on May 30.
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[Featured image: Madison Bergmann/St. Croix County Sheriff’s Office]
