District Leaders and the Blount County Commission unanimously voted on a resolution that asks for more thorough investigation into every single complaint of sexual misconduct in Blount County Schools.
This resolution also included an official request of state legislators to take away state certification and benefits from any educator that’s pleaded or found guilty of sexual misconduct, to avoid those people from being in school in the future in Tennessee.
“I was sexually assaulted by Joseph Dalton when I was in kindergarten at Porter Elementary School,” said a former Blount County student who said she was assaulted by Dalton. “Ever since then, I have blocked it out of my mind and what he did to me has affected my life. But I’m a survivor of a child molester who isn’t being held accountable for what he did to me.”
Gym teacher Joseph Dalton was arrested back in January and plead guilty to assault after several reports of inappropriate contact with students.
He taught at two elementary schools in Blount County and is being accused of tickling and touching students.
Investigators used surveillance video which shows students forcibly trying to remove themselves from Dalton, some of these allegations go back to 2005. He will have another appearance in court in November.
Leaders say they’re in contact with a firm in Iowa who’d be able to audit Blount County schools and go through more than a decades worth of complaints.
