Madison teacher arrested under new child grooming law

A Madison teacher was booked into jail March 27 on suspicion of sexually grooming a child, likely marking one of the first arrests for that offense since state lawmakers took action to criminalize it.

Madison police are investigating a 29-year-old teacher at Vel Phillips Memorial High School for having an inappropriate relationship with a student, according to a release from the department. The school placed the teacher on administrative leave.

The teacher was arrested on the same day police served a series of search warrants in the Madison area related to the investigation.

In addition to the grooming allegation, the teacher was arrested on suspicion of causing mental harm to a child and sexual misconduct by a school staff person or volunteer charges, according to a police news release.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is not naming the teacher because they have not been charged. Online state court records showed no current or prior charges filed against the teacher as of March 28.

The investigation became public about a week before the teacher’s arrest, according to information from police and the school district.

In a statement released March 25, Superintendent Joe Gothard said he has “zero tolerance for anyone who does not put our students first.”

“I sincerely apologize to students and families who have been impacted by this situation,” he said. “These situations rattle an entire community, and our team has support systems in place to help those who need additional assistance.”

The arrest comes a few weeks after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers signed the grooming bill into law. It is now a felony offense for an adult to engage in “a course of conduct, pattern of behavior, or series of acts with the intention to condition, seduce, solicit, lure, or entice a child” for the purpose of engaging in sexual intercourse or sexual contact, or to create and distribute child pornography.

If convicted, a person could face between 10 and 25 years in prison, depending on who the person is to the child and whether the child has a disability, among other factors that could increase penalties. Those convicted of grooming would be required to register with the Department of Corrections as a sex offender.

“Defining grooming is a critical step to give law enforcement and local school districts the tools they need to hold bad actors accountable for hurting our kids, and I’m glad the Legislature took this seriously this session and passed bipartisan legislation to get this done,” Evers said at the March 6 bill signing.

The measures were drafted last fall as State Superintendent Jill Underly came under scrutiny over how the state education department handles allegations of grooming and sexual misconduct by licensed school staff.

The Capital Times reported on 200 cases of such incidents since 2018, including instances of teachers who were able to later reapply for a license. The details of the cases were not proactively made public beyond being made available for review for anyone who files a request under the state’s public records law.