A teacher who raped a 14-year-old girl was sentenced to just 30 days in jail, three years after the troubled victim committed suicide shortly before her 17th birthday.

Montana teacher Stacy Rambold admitted sex with 14-year-old student

A judge in Montana sentenced Stacy Dean Rambold, 54, to 15 years, but suspended all but 31 days of the sentence, meaning that the former Billings High School teacher will serve only a month behind bars. Prosecutors had wanted Rambold to serve at least 10 years in prison, but Yellowstone County District Judge G. Todd Baugh said after listening to recorded statements by the victim, Cherice Morales, that she seemed “older than her chronological age,” the Billings Gazette reported. The light sentence for Rambold enraged the girl’s mother:

The judge’s sentence was not received well by the girl’s mother, who repeatedly screamed “You people suck!” and stormed out of the courtroom.
Auliea Hanlon testified earlier at the hearing that her daughter’s relationship with Rambold was a “major factor” in her suicide, and she begged the judge to order Rambold to prison.
“Please put him behind bars,” the woman said.
Chief Deputy County Attorney Rod Souza had asked the judge to order Rambold to serve 20 years in prison, with 10 years suspended.
Souza said Rambold targeted a troubled young girl and violated his position of trust as a teacher by engaging in a sexual relationship with a student.

Rambold, who had been previously warned by school officials about his behavior with female students, was arrested in 2008 after his relationship with Morales was discovered. After Morales committed suicide in 2010, authorities agreed not to prosecute Rambold if he entered a sex-offender treatment program. Rambold was kicked out of that program in December when it was learned he had unsupervised visits with minors. Prosecutors then pressed charges and Rambold pleaded guilty to a felony in April.

READ MORE:

• Greg Tuttle, Billings Gazette: Former Senior High teacher gets 30 days for rape of student
• Michael Zennie, London Daily Mail: Teacher who admitted raping student, 14, who later committed suicide gets just 30 days in jail