Feb 15, 2007 By Josh Krysak 3 min read

A suspended teacher in the Albert Gallatin Area School District accused of having sex with a 16-year-old student was sentenced Thursday to 7 ½ months of house arrest, followed by 16 months probation. Last November, Donald J. Rosie, 56, of South Union Township pleaded no contest to corruption of minors for having sex with the student.

Fayette County Judge Steve P. Leskinen handed down the sentence Thursday afternoon for the misdemeanor charge to the disbelief of the victim’s family.

“I am disappointed that all the truth isn’t out there,” the victim’s mother said following the sentencing.

Leskinen called the case “difficult,” noting that “morals and law and ethics are three different things.”

“The court is obliged to impose punishment at the lowest level to achieve a just result,” Leskinen said prior to ruling in the case.

The girl told police on June 28, 2006, that she and Rosie had a sexual relationship that started in March 2006. They allegedly had sex inside Rosie’s car at his Clinton Road home, police said.

Police said the sexual intercourse between Rosie and the girl came after Rosie taught the child in sixth grade and then started a friendship with the girl in March 2005, about one year prior to the relationship turning sexual.

The girl and her family are not being identified because she is the victim of a sex-related crime.

The girl’s mother said the district is home-schooling her, because students have made fun of her because of the allegations.

“She has been ostracized because of this,” her mother wrote in a letter read to the court Thursday by District Attorney Nancy D. Vernon. “Regardless of consent, she is the child here and Mr. Rosie is the adult … our lives as we knew them are over.”

The letter also alleges in detail sexual advances and innuendo between Rosie and the victim beginning when she was in sixth grade.

Leskinen said that the accusations in the account were not relevant to the charge against Rosie and cut the reading of the letter short.

Vernon argued that regardless of when interactions between the two occurred and regardless of the girl’s consent to have sex last year, Rosie violated his trust as a figure of authority in the girl’s life because he was her teacher.

“He violated his trust through a progressive course, calling the victim hundreds of times and eventually meeting her at the age of 16 and having sexual intercourse,” Vernon said.

Defense attorney Samuel Davis said Rosie has received a groundswell of support from colleagues and friends following the charges and called on the court to review his record as a teacher in the district for more than 30 years.

“I would ask the court to balance a decision between the years of good service and with this mistake,” Davis said.

A complaint filed last month in a civil lawsuit against Rosie claimed that he has made inappropriate comments to at least seven other female students since his 1972 hiring.

The parents of the student sued the school district in October, claiming officials turned a blind eye to Rosie’s behavior.

In the complaint, attorney Thomas W. Shaffer indicated that Rosie had inappropriate contact with several softball players in the spring of 2005 before Rosie resigned as the team’s coach.