Milwaukee teacher, 25, jailed for 5 years after 'sexual contact' with 11-year-old schoolboy

A Milwaukee teacher has been sentenced to five years in prison after she had sexual contact with an 11-year-old student while watching the movie Deadpool.

Katherine Gonzalez, 25, pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual assault of a child, and apologised to the boy and his parents for her "unthinkable actions".

But Judge Mark Sanders said at the sentencing hearing that despite her clean criminal record, Gonzalez's "predacious" behaviour and gradual grooming of the boy made the case very serious.

The judge added his sentence was meant to warn others to exercise better judgement if they begin to go down such a path, reported the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

He said it was highly likely that the incident would have a negative impact on the boy in years to come.

Earlier, the former Atlas Preparatory Academy teacher in the Wisconsin city said her actions were motivated because she loved the boy and wanted to make him happy. She explained she felt he was "chronically depressed".

The encounters between Gonzalez and the boy were uncovered when the victim's mother saw Snapchat conversations between the pair after she confiscated his cellphone for disciplinary reasons in February.

The phone began buzzing with lewd messages from Gonzalez at around 3:30 a.m. that night, prompting the boy's mother to go to police, according to assistant district attorney Matthew Torbenson.

The boy described the sexual encounters he had with his teacher to the authorities. He said they kissed in Gonzalez's car and that she asked the boy to touch her genital area over her clothes.

They watched the movie Marvel superhero action movie Deadpool at Gonzalez's apartment and she rubbed her hand over the boy's groin and had him touch her breasts over her clothing, the boy told police. They did not have sexual intercourse.

In one of the messages, the victim's mother saw Gonzalez writing about the boy touching her "down there", the court heard.

In June, a former reading specialist April Novak, 32, was handed two years in prison for repeatedly having sexual intercourse with a 16-year-old boy in their classroom in Menomonee Falls High School, Wisconsin.