Teacher gets a year of probation for sexual relationship with 16 year old girl

By Darcy Gray - The Hutchinson News - dgray@hutchnews.com

A former Hutchinson High School basketball coach and teacher was sentenced Monday in Reno County Court to one year of community corrections for having sex with a 16-year-old female student.

Bradly S. Specht, 35, who appeared Monday before Reno County District Judge Tim Chambers, had pleaded no contest and was found guilty in May of the single count of unlawful sexual relations.

Specht avoided a possible six-month stint in jail when he was sentenced to community corrections, an intensive form of probation, which was part of a plea agreement revealed in court Monday by Assistant Kansas Attorney General Jason Hart.

When given the opportunity to speak in court, Specht solemnly described the incident as “life-changing” and “something I’ll never get out from under.”

Specht, who also had been a physical education teacher at Hutchinson High School, said he’d apologized to some of his former colleagues and students he had seen since his arrest in March. He also offered “condolences to the victim” and her family.

Chambers said he had not received any statements from the victim, who did not appear in court Monday.

“I can only speculate the effect it will have on the rest of her life,” Chambers told Specht.

After telling Specht he had caused “denigration to a profession that’s an honorable profession,” Chambers ordered him to write a letter of apology to all teachers at Hutchinson High School for the undue publicity the school and its teachers had received.

The case led to “bad effects on a profession that should not be subject to this activity,” not only for Hutchinson High School teachers but for teachers across the state, Chambers said.

Other requirements Chambers ordered Specht to follow, as part of the plea agreement, included no contact with the victim and registering on the statewide felony offender list for the next 10 years.

While Hart requested Specht attend a sex offender treatment program, Charlie O’Hara, the Wichita attorney representing Specht, questioned whether that was necessary. O’Hara noted Specht had been cooperative with authorities.

“His background as a coach and teacher has obviously been destroyed by this,” O’Hara said Monday. “He’ll never be able to do that again.”

Chambers ordered Specht to undergo an evaluation and attend whatever treatment is recommended to be appropriate in the case.

Specht and the female student first kissed in November 2008 in Specht’s office, according to details of the case previously released by Hart.

The contact later escalated in the office and adjoining film viewing room, and Specht began sending suggestive text messages. From December 2008 through February, the pair met several times during lunchtime at Dillon Nature Center in Hutchinson and at Specht’s home.

Officials learned of the relationship after the girl confided in a friend, who alerted the girl’s parents. The parents contacted school officials Feb. 25, who called police. Specht resigned his teaching and coaching positions that same day.

Specht initially was booked into jail on suspicion of eight counts of unlawful sexual relations, but the attorney general’s office filed only a single count. The case was referred to the attorney general because Specht’s sister once was an attorney in the Reno County District Attorney’s Office.