GARDEN CITY, Kansas – Tuesday a former Kansas teacher accused of an inappropriate relationship with a student was in court.
Katie Rufener was teaching in 2015 when she was accused of having a consensual relationship with an 18-year-old student at Holcomb High School.
Rufener will be going to trial on three counts of unlawful sexual relations after she waived her right to a preliminary hearing in Finney County Court today.
She had been a science teacher and the head cheerleading coach at Holcomb High before resigning in the spring of 2015.
Court documents say that Rufener had invited the teen over to her home three different times to have sex.
Her attorney wouldn’t speak on camera but tells KSN there was no benefit to going through with a preliminary hearing to outline the evidence against her at this time.
Rufener is currently on unpaid leave from Southern Local School District in Ohio.
After she resigned from her position in Holcomb last year, she was hired to be a teacher in that state.
KSN reached out to the Holcomb school district, but they declined to comment on today’s court proceedings.
She is expected to be back in court on March 9 for arraignment.
A Liberal woman teaching in Tyrone, Oklahoma, just across the state line, has been arrested after being accused of raping a student.
Claire Torres was arrested on suspicion of five counts of rape in the second degree and 22 counts of indecent exposure.
Investigators say she had an inappropriate relationship with a student in the Tyrone, Oklahoma school district, where she’s been put on administrative leave.
She was arrested in Seward County and now Oklahoma is trying to get a warrant to have her returned.
She was released on a $25,000 bond.
