 It's been almost a year since a former Bemidji Middle School assistant principal was taken into custody for sex crimes against minors. And today, the case came to an emotional close when Brandon Bjorkness was sentenced to 30 months in prison, even though his federal sentence of 25 years supersedes that state's sentence. Josh Peterson was in the courtroom and shares with us how today's sentencing brought the case to a symbolic end. It was March when Bemidji Middle School assistant principal Brandon Bjorkness was arrested and jailed on suspicion of child sex crimes. Over the course of the last year, the case played out eventually leading to a guilty plea to federal charges last September. Earlier this week, Bjorkness was sentenced to 25 years in prison with life supervision. Today, in Beltrami County District Court, the sentence handed down was won to assure that the four convictions on state charges would be placed on his permanent record, even though he won't serve the 30 months that was handed down. The state sentence was really consumed into the federal sentence. So Judge Benchouf imposed a 30 month executed prison sentence which is going to be consumed by Judge Wright's 25 year sentence in federal prison. The outcome of the case was a result of hard work by investigators and dedicated parents. An alert parent being involved in their child's life, understanding what electronic devices can do. And it was their diligence that brought this to us and it opened the door to start looking at more information. One thing the Bjorkness case did was raise awareness for many parents about the dangers lurking in social media and how important it is to monitor children's devices. We need more parents to be diligent. Not all of them aren't, but try to stay up with all these apps to come out to social media from Snapchat, to Facebook, to Kix. There are always new messaging devices evolving. During the hearing Bjorkness read a tear filled statement to the court saying, quote, there is no excuse for what I did and continued on to say, I can never say enough how sorry I am. His attorney echoed that statement after the hearing. Has become in tune to the pain he's caused. He was extremely proud to be an educator and a principal and has destroyed that. But for the victims and their parents who sat in the courtroom, the pain and betrayal is still ongoing. And one victim's mother said, quote, it is far from over for the victims. This kind of pain doesn't heal that easily. In Bemidji, Josh Peterson, Lakeland News. Bjorkness was remanded in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons who will have to register as a sex offender. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.