Former Choir Teacher Gets Six Months in Jail for Sex with Student

A judge sentenced a former high school choir teacher in Minnesota to six months behind bars for having sex with an underage teenage student.

Christine Lee Funk, 32, of New Hope, was initially charged with three counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct for sexually assaulting a 17-year-old male student, but accepted a plea deal where she pleaded guilty to one count of the offense, KARE reported.

The New York Post reports that the Dakota County District Court Judge dismissed the other two counts and ordered Funk to complete ten years of probation and register as a sex offender once she serves out her six-month prison sentence.

If convicted on the original charges, Funk would have faced a maximum sentence of 15 years behind bars.

Funk, who used to teach music at Henry Sibley High School in Mendota Heights, was accused of having sex with the 17-year-old student three times. Authorities learned of the illicit relationship after a school resource officer alerted the police of inappropriate text messages on the student’s phone with semi-nude images of the music teacher.

There have been other instances in the past month of teachers being accused of sexual misconduct with their underage students. A former middle school choir teacher in Clearwater, Florida, was arrested this month for having a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old student.