Ex-teacher, former Wichita City Council candidate pleads guilty in student sex case
An ex-teacher and former Wichita City Council candidate charged with carrying on a sexual relationship with a teenage student has pleaded guilty, according to court records and the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office.
Rodney C. Wren on Wednesday pleaded guilty to one of three counts of unlawful sexual relations related to illegal contact he had with a girl in 2015 and 2016 while he worked at Wichita Collegiate School. The school fired him when he was arrested on Feb. 7, 2020.
A probable cause affidavit released by the court last year says Wren began pursuing the girl her sophomore year after getting her phone number from school records. The contact progressed to the point where Wren interacted with her sexually in his classroom “most days” during her senior year, the affidavit says the girl told authorities.
In a Thursday phone interview, Wren’s defense lawyer said his client “crossed boundaries that he shouldn’t have crossed.” But he said he doesn’t think Wren is “a pedophile” or “a predator.”
“He’s a normal human being. He’s weak, like a lot of people,” attorney Gerard Scott said, adding that the relationship was “definitely wrong” but that Wren “fell head over heels.”
“Nobody was paying enough attention, it seems, for something like this to happen,” he said.
“The school needs to be on alert for these possibilities.”
When the allegations surfaced in early 2020, Wren had long been a teacher and debate coach at Wichita Collegiate School and had an unsuccessful run for the District 2 Wichita City Council seat in 2019. He also is a former contender for the Kansas House of Representatives District 83 seat but dropped out of the 2012 race due to personal attacks, according to The Eagle’s news archives.
Wren is scheduled for sentencing July 27 before Sedgwick County District Judge Christopher Magana.
This story was originally published June 10, 2021 at 2:50 PM.
