Teacher escapes prison after admitting to having sex with 17-year-old

A former teacher escaped prison time after she admitted to having sexual relations with a female student who was part of the drama club she oversaw.

Christine Knudsen, 46, was instead hit with a three-year suspended sentence for her sordid sexual relationship with a then 17-year-old girl for several months in 2017 and 2018.

Heard sniffling while being reprimanded for her behavior, Knudsen was also told by a New Jersey judge that she will now be on parole for the rest of her life. 

The ex-graphic arts teacher at Fair Lawn High School will also be required to register as a sex offender and has been forbidden to have any contact with the victim.

In return for a guilty plea, prosecutors asked the second-degree crime be sentenced as a third-degree, and with the suspended sentence, Knudsen will only be sent to prison should she violate her parole.

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A violation would see the teacher, who was also forced to hand in her Garden sate teaching certificate, serve the three years, prosecutors in Bergen County said – plus whatever time was imposed for the initial violation.   

‘You are hereby sentenced to three years in New Jersey State Prison to be suspended,’ said state Superior Court Judge Nina Remson, six months after Knudsen pleaded guilty to the illegal sexual relationship.  

‘You are also sentenced to comply with registration requirements of Megan’s Law and parole supervision for life,’ the jurist continued, citing US laws that will require Knudsen to register as a sex offender for the foreseeable future.

‘I’m going to give you a document that indicates where you’ll be reporting to parole,’ Remson added.

‘I’m also going to execute the Nicole’s Law restraining order, and you’ll be given a copy of that in just a moment as well.’

Donning a face mask for the proceedings, Knudsen could be heard sniffling during the judge’s statement, which referenced a federal law that forbids her to have any contact with the victim, who is now at least 22. 

‘You are to have no contact with the victim, whose initials are NK – of course you know who that is,’ reiterated Remson, in a spiel that would eventually see her cut the disgraced educator some slack.

‘You’re barred from her residence, school, place of employment, [and] you’re prohibited from having any oral, written, personal, telephonic, electronic or any other form of contact with her,’ the judge added. 

‘And you’re prohibited for making or causing anyone to make any harassing communications with the victim, from stalking, from threatening the victim. 

‘Do you understand that?’ she asked – to which Knudsen, seated next to her attorney, replied, ‘Yes, Your Honor.’

‘You’ve already surrendered you’re teaching certificate, which is ordered as part of this sentence,’ added Remson, before calling the hearing – and case – to a close.

However, she first referenced allegations that suggested the educator consumed controlled substances with the student, whom she fessed up becoming acquainted with while heading a drama club where the victim was a member.

Prosecutors did not publicly release more information about the drugs or what they were, but accused the graphic arts teacher of ‘providing and ingesting [the] controlled dangerous substances with the student.’    

‘I’m also going to have you a have a task evaluation, which is to assess whether you need any treatment for substance abuse, given what I’ve seen in the sentence report,’ said Remson during the sentencing.

‘I don’t know if that’s an issue presently, but it was referred to in the report that there was some past conduct that was troubling in that regard. 

‘So, if there’s any treatment recommended, you are to comply with that treatment.’

Remson conceded the relationship would have technically been legal, if it it had not occurred in a school setting between an instructor and student.

That’s because the victim was 17 at the time, and of the age of consent in the Garden State is 17.

That said, given the context of Knudsen’s crimes and her position of power over the teen, the victim was considered a child for the admitted sex offender’s sentencing.

‘Parents send their kids to school every day, trusting they will be safe in the care of their teachers,’ Remson said. 

‘And there is a very strong need to deter not only Ms. Knudsen but all citizens from violations of the law, especially in this nature involving a breach of trust between the teacher and the student.’

The jurist added children can be easily influenced, especially with someone older and in a position of authority as Knudsen had been.

She added Knudsen – a staffer at the school for 21 years before the scandal – that not only should she have ended the relationship when it began in 2017, but it should not have begun at all.

At Knudsen’s previous hearing in July, she told the court how she became acquainted with the teen between January and November in 2017, when she was assigned to supervise a drama club the victim belonged to 

She admitted how during that time period, the relationship between her and the student turned romantic and eventually sexual – a relationship that Assistant Prosecutor Stephen Bollenbach called disturbing due its duration.

‘These allegations are disturbing,’ Bollenbach said of the months-long arrangement, which fell apart after cops received a series of tips from unidentified onlookers. 

‘The defendant not only engaged in criminal sexual activity with a student, she also violated the public trust through this behavior.’

On Wednesday, he called the plea deal “justice tempered with mercy,” and said he was happy the teacher’s sentencing required her to forfeit her teaching license, essentially ending her career.

‘So while this is certainly not a victimless crime — it’s far from it — I hope that Ms. Knudsen is forever deterred,’ Bollenbach said. 

‘I think that is in the best interest of the community as a whole and certainly to the students.’