Records detail earlier incidents involving former Blount County Schools employee who pleaded guilty to ‘touching assault’

MARYVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — The personnel file and disciplinary record of a former Blount County Schools employee is shedding light on previous incidents before he pleaded guilty to offensive touching.

Joseph Dalton pleaded guilty on September 4 to five counts of offensive touching assault. According to Blount County Schools, Dalton worked at school locations in Friendsville, Walland, and Lanier. The school system also released that he resigned on September 29, 2023. The incidents that led to the guilty plea took place in September 2023.

Sick leave records obtained by WATE show that Dalton worked for Blount County School between 2002 to 2017. Additional records show he held several positions during this time. Personnel request forms state that Dalton was requested for positions including:

• Full-time Special Education at William Blount High School in August 2001
• Part time teaching assistant at Mary Blount Elementary in September 2002
• Temporary full-time teaching assistant in special education at Mary Blount Elementary in November 2002
• Full time (from part time) as a special education teaching assistant at Maryville Blount Elementary in July 2003
• Systemwide part-time physical education teacher in July 2004
• Part-time Special Education TA at Eagleton Elementary in August 2004
• Full-time countywide physical education in December 2004
• Full-time systemwide physical education in July 2005

Records from the Blount County Sheriff’s Office state that Dalton was first investigated in August 2005 on an allegation of “forcible fondling” at Porter Elementary.

In a Blount County Sheriff’s Office report dated August 25, 2005 , a deputy who was serving as a school resource officer wrote that he was approached by the school’s principal, who reported that she had been approached by a student’s parents who believed that Dalton, a gym teacher at the time, may have touched their child inappropriately.

The report states the parents told the deputy that they picked up their child from school on August 22, 2005, their child was crying and was unable to tell them why. They continued to explain that the next morning, the child did not want to go to school. The report continues to state that the parents alleged they were told by the child or another individual whose name was redacted that the “gym teacher” had touched the child’s belly, leg and “too-too,” referring to the frontal crotch area, during gym class with his finger.

The report then states that Dalton was the only gym teacher at the school that year, and the deputy filed a report with DCS.

In another report from February 21, 2018 , a deputy was told by a school nurse at Eagleton Elementary School that she saw Dalton come into contact with several female students in his class in a way that made her uncomfortable. The deputy reviewed video of the gym class and wrote that he saw Dalton with a female student standing to his left in contact with his left thigh and that he had both of his arms around another female student’s chest that was standing directly in front of him. The deputy also wrote that about five minutes later in the video, he saw Dalton sitting in a chair in the back corner of the gym with the same two girls sitting on his lap, straddling each knee, and Dalton had an arm around each girl’s waist.

Another BCSO report states that Dalton was accused of sexual battery by an authority figure following an incident on October 29, 2019. According to the report, a school resource officer at Eagleton Elementary was told by the school’s assistant principal in regard to a report that had been made by a guidance counselor about Dalton allegedly inappropriately touching a student.

The resource officer spoke with the student’s mother, who reportedly told him that the student said while she was in gym class with everyone sitting in a circle, Dalton placed a hand on her right leg above the knee and slid his hand behind her, touching her buttocks. The deputy wrote that he watched school video with the assistant principal that confirmed the allegations.

The report continues to state that the deputy then notified their chain of command and filed a report with DCS, however, an update in the report explains the district attorney’s office declined to prosecute the case “citing being able to prove sexual gratification and this being a he said she said type of case.”

Two emails from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to the Blount County Board of Education included in Dalton’s employee file state that background checks were completed in November 2018 and June 2023. Both emails state that there was no indication of any record that would preclude Dalton from employment in the school system.

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