PORTLAND, Maine — A fourth-grade teacher has apologized for playing the groom in a mock wedding to a student.

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The Portland Press Herald reported that Paul Rosenblum agreed to participate after the girl proposed and his class at the Plummer-Motz School in Falmouth, Maine, cajoled him.

At the brief playground ceremony, Rosenblum wore a black graduation gown and a clown tie. The girl had a sheet draped around her clothes for a gown.

There was no kiss but the newspaper reported the teacher took the student's hand and they ran down a gazebo ramp at the end of the ceremony.

The school later received several phone calls about it.

'Sick with regret'
In a letter sent to parents, Rosenblum said he was only intending to indulge "a little girl's game of dress-up and make-believe." He said he is remorseful and "sick with regret."

"The fact that an adult would consent to 'marry' one of his students, however light the intended context, shows a serious lapse in judgment," he added.

Superintendent Barbara Powers wouldn't say whether any disciplinary action was taken.

"I think it was just lots of class joking around — and crushes and things like that — and the kids thinking it would be a cheerful, fun thing to do for the end of the year," Powers told the newspaper. "The teacher agreed to go along with it, just not thinking it through."

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