Hudson teacher charged with sexually assaulting 11-year-old student

Nick Ferraro, Pioneer Press
Updated ·3 min read
1

A western Wisconsin elementary school teacher has been arrested and charged with sexually assaulting an 11-year-old student.

Madison Lynn Bergmann of St. Paul kissed the fifth-grade boy on the mouth and touched his leg in her classroom at Rivercrest Elementary School in Hudson, according to a criminal complaint filed Thursday in St. Croix District Court. Bergmann, 24, is charged with first-degree child sexual assault of a child under age 13.

Bergmann was arrested at the school Wednesday and released from St. Croix County Jail on a $25,000 bond the next day following her initial court appearance. She is due back in court May 30.

Bergmann’s attorney, Joe Tamburino, declined to comment Monday on the allegations.

The Hudson school district said Bergmann was put on unpaid administrative leave Thursday. She started teaching in the district in Fall 2022.

The illicit conduct was first discovered last week through several text messages between Bergmann and the boy. In a letter police then found in the boy’s desk, Bergmann told him, “I love you so much it hurts,” the complaint says.

According to the complaint, Principal Kim Osterhues called the school’s resource officer Wednesday about alleged inappropriate conduct between a teacher and a student. The officer met with Osterhues, the Hudson school district’s human resources director and the boy’s father.

Several printed screenshots of text messages between the boy and Bergmann were given to the officer. In one text, Bergmann wrote that she “wanted to just grab your face and push you to the floor and make out with you.” In another text, the teacher told the boy how she “almost kissed you when you were on the ground today but I got distracted by your stomach,” the complaint says.

Parents spotted communications

The boy’s mother discovered Bergmann talking to her son on the phone on April 29, then emailed the teacher, telling her to stop contacting the boy outside of school. The mother took the boy’s phone and gave it to his father, who found the text messages Wednesday and notified the school, the complaint says.

In an interview Wednesday at the school, Bergmann said she spoke with the boy over the phone four or five times. She said that she had been invited to go snowboarding at Afton Alps with the boy and his family and she exchanged phone numbers with him in case they became separated.

When Bergmann was asked if there had been any text messages exchanged between her and the boy, she requested a lawyer.

Police found in Bergmann’s backpack a folder with the boy’s name on it and several handwritten notes. “In her notes she tells him that she loves him, wants to kiss him, he turns her on, and that she is obsessed with him,” the complaint says.

The boy told police he got Bergmann’s phone number when they were snowboarding at Afton Alps with his mom. He said they communicate almost daily.

The boy said Bergmann had touched his hand, shin and thigh while he sat next to her desk during independent reading time and that “he did not believe any of the other kids would see it happening,” the complaint says.

The boy then told police Bergmann told him to stay after class and that she approached him and kissed him on the mouth. He said that Bergmann had kissed him several times in the classroom after school or during lunch since March, according to the complaint.

The school district said Monday it notified parents of the allegations through email the same day she was arrested. In a Sunday email to parents, Superintendent Nick Ouellette called the allegations “gut wrenching” and added, “I want you to know the School District is taking this very seriously.”

Related Articles