A former Archbishop Carroll teacher was sentenced to probation for having sex with a student
Christopher Serpentine, 36, pleaded guilty to initiating the relationship when the student was a senior in high school.
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/pmn/EN7A34G36VAMPMOM5WOMDDMKAE.jpg)
A former teacher at a Main Line Catholic school has been sentenced to three years’ probation for having a sexual relationship with a student.
Chris Serpentine, 36, pleaded guilty to sexual contact with a student last week during a hearing before Delaware County Judge Margaret J. Amoroso. Prosecutors had sought jail time, saying Serpentine used his position as a teacher at Archbishop John Carroll High School to gain the victim’s trust and groom her into an inappropriate relationship.
But the judge said she was offering leniency because he had accepted responsibility for his actions by pleading guilty and had no previous criminal record. As a condition of his sentence, Serpentine must also undergo a psychosexual evaluation and register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law for 25 years.
Serpentine’s attorney, Thomas Egan III, declined to comment on the case Wednesday. During the hearing, Serpentine apologized for his actions and acknowledged that the relationship was harmful to the victim.
In a statement read in court, the victim said Serpentine treated her like a “puppet,” and exploited a tumultuous time in her life to prey on her.
The woman told Radnor police in May 2019 that her relationship with Serpentine began during her senior year, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest. She said they began a physical relationship and had sexual contact both on and off school property between April and June 2017, when she graduated. The relationship continued until the following summer, she said.
Serpentine’s arrest and firing in 2019 came two months after another teacher at Archbishop Carroll was arrested on the same charge. Jeremiah Tripplett, 33, pleaded guilty to sexual contact with a student after police discovered he had provided students with THC-laced edibles and had sexual contact with at least one student.
He was sentenced to three to nine months in county prison in November 2019 and has since been released.