Workhouse for Twin Cities man who sexually touched girls in his fifth-grade class

A 64-year-old Twin Cities man was sentenced to the Hennepin County workhouse and has had his teacher’s license revoked for inappropriately touching and making sexually suggestive comments to girls in his fifth-grade class.

Wayne Clifford Wallace, 64, was sentenced in Hennepin County District Court after pleading guilty to four gross misdemeanor counts of fifth-degree criminal sexual conduct in connection with his actions during the 2022-23 school year at Basswood Elementary School in Maple Grove.

Judge Michael Burns set aside a one-year term in the workhouse and opted for 60 days and two years’ supervised probation. The sentence also orders Wallace not to work in any school setting that includes minors.

Defense attorney Ryan Garry asked Burns in a court filing to rescind the plea deal’s requirement that Wallace not possess any guns during his time on probation, citing the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment protecting the right to bear arms. The judge rejected the request.

The most common acts by Wallace, of Maple Grove, included touching girls on their buttocks and elsewhere, the criminal complaint read.

Wallace’s last day with the district was Dec. 19, 2023, around the time the allegations surfaced, an Osseo School District spokeswoman said.

Tanwaporn Chino, spokesperson for the state’s Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board, said Wallace’s teacher’s license was revoked on Friday.

According to the complaint:

The Minnesota Department of Education alerted police in late 2023 to allegations against Wallace, who had been warned twice previously about touching girls. One girl said Wallace spanked her on multiple occasions. He touched another girl on the buttocks, ostensibly as a demonstration of static electricity.

Another student said Wallace touched her on the buttocks, thigh and shoulder, once after she said she was cold. One girl said she was touched inappropriately in the hall and in his classroom.