Madison Bergmann

Introduction

Madison Bergmann is a 26-year-old former fifth-grade teacher at River Crest Elementary School in Hudson, Wisconsin, who was sentenced to six years in prison on Friday, December 19, 2025, for sexually abusing an 11-year-old male student from her own classroom. In St. Croix County court, Judge Scott Nordstrand imposed a six-year prison term followed by six years of extended supervision, and ordered her to register as a sex offender. The sentence closed a case that began in May 2024, when the child’s parents discovered the relationship and brought it to school officials, and that was built on a documented record of more than 35,000 messages between teacher and student exchanged over the school year.

Background Information

Bergmann taught fifth grade at River Crest Elementary School in Hudson, a western Wisconsin city on the Minnesota border. She was 24 years old and the child was 11 when she was arrested in May 2024. According to charging documents, she and the student talked and texted each other “almost daily,” and investigators found the pair had exchanged more than 35,000 text messages between February and April 2024 — an average the sentencing court described as hundreds per day.

Judge Nordstrand stated at sentencing that the two first messaged each other when the child was still in fourth grade, and that even those initial messages contained “nothing about learning.” A search of Bergmann’s belongings at the school uncovered nearly 100 letters, love notes, and pieces of artwork exchanged between the two. The child told investigators they had kissed several times and talked about having sex.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Adjudicated vs. alleged. Bergmann’s guilty pleas — entered September 29, 2025, to one count of child enticement with sexual contact and two counts of sexual misconduct by school staff — and her December 19, 2025 sentence are matters of court record. The remaining seven felony counts were dismissed as part of the plea deal, and the conduct tied to those dismissed counts remains an unproven allegation.

The case began in May 2024, when the student’s parents discovered their child exchanging phone calls and text messages with Bergmann outside of school hours. The parents brought the concerning messages to River Crest Elementary School officials, leading to Bergmann’s immediate removal from the classroom and her arrest; she resigned from the Hudson School District that same month. Investigators were shown screenshots of a text conversation in which Bergmann wrote about how much she enjoyed the child touching her and the pair “making out.” The criminal complaint detailed allegations of kissing, touching, and sexual contact with the child.

She was charged with ten felonies, including child enticement and first-degree child sexual assault. On September 29, 2025, she pleaded guilty to three counts — child enticement with sexual contact and two counts of sexual misconduct by school staff — as part of a plea deal under which the other seven charges were dismissed.

Public Reaction and Consequences

At the December 19, 2025 sentencing hearing, prosecutor Alysja Otten showed screenshots of the messages between Bergmann and her student and summed up the offenses in two words: deliberate and damaging. She argued that Bergmann only stopped once the child’s parents found out, and cited the age gap — a 24-year-old teacher and an 11-year-old student — along with the abuse of power inherent in Bergmann’s position; before sentencing, Otten had advocated for twelve years in prison.

Bergmann’s attorney, Joseph Tamburino, argued for a probationary sentence, saying Bergmann had been through treatment and had obeyed the rules since. Judge Nordstrand recounted how the correspondence escalated over time — from messages with “nothing about learning” to discussions of touching, kissing, menstruation, oral sex, and expressions of love — remarking of the messages, “This is crazy in a sense.” Bergmann addressed the court directly, saying “there is no excuse for my mistaken actions” and “It will remain with me for the rest of my life.”

The court sentenced her to six years in prison on the child enticement count and three years and six months on each of the two school-staff misconduct counts, all served concurrently, followed by six years of extended supervision. She is not eligible for the Challenge Incarceration Program or the Substance Abuse Program. Upon release, she may have no contact with the victim or the victim’s family, may not contact anyone under 18 without prior approval from authorities, must register as a sex offender in Wisconsin, and may not use the internet or social media without prior permission.

The case also exposed a second scandal at the same school: Bergmann’s former coworker Abigail Faust, another fifth-grade teacher at River Crest, was separately accused of sexually abusing a student from the school and a teenager she nannied — investigators identified Faust while working the Bergmann case, and she has since pleaded guilty in her own case, as documented elsewhere on this site.

Current Status

As of mid-September 2026, Bergmann is serving her six-year prison sentence in Wisconsin, to be followed by six years of extended supervision under the conditions imposed at sentencing: sex offender registration, no contact with the victim or minors, and restricted internet and social media use. Her convictions stand: one felony count of child enticement with sexual contact and two counts of sexual misconduct by school staff, resolved by plea on September 29, 2025, with the seven dismissed counts legally unproven. The other teacher swept up in the same River Crest scandal, Abigail Faust, entered her own guilty pleas in September 2026 and awaits sentencing.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Bergmann’s teaching career ended in May 2024 with her removal from the classroom, arrest, and resignation from the Hudson School District, and her felony convictions make any return to education — or any work around children — effectively impossible. Beyond the six-year prison term, she will spend six years under extended supervision, live as a registered sex offender, and operate under prior-approval restrictions on contact with minors and on internet and social media use for the supervision period. Her own statement at sentencing acknowledged the permanence of what she did: “It will remain with me for the rest of my life.”