UPDATE: Former Teacher to Stand Trial on Inappropriate Contact Charges
Published: July 11, 2009
Updated: October 26, 2009
UPDATE…Attorneys for William Joseph Seagroves moved to continue case. His new trial is set for February 16, 2010.
BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn. – A former Sullivan Central High School teacher will answer charges in October that he had inappropriate sexual contact with a 16-year-old girl.
On Friday, Sullivan County Circuit Court Judge Robert Montgomery set an Oct. 28 court date for William Joseph Seagroves, 34, of Jonesborough, Tenn.
Seagroves pleaded not guilty May 1 to one count of sexual battery by an authority figure. The charge stems from accusations that he had inappropriate sexual contact with a 16-year-old girl on May 23, 2008. If convicted, he could be sentenced to a maximum of two years in prison.
Seagroves started teaching math at Sullivan Central in January 2006. He resigned from the job Oct. 23, soon after the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office announced it was investigating accusations he sent inappropriate text messages to one of his students.
According to an Oct. 10 report filed with the Sheriff’s Office, Seagroves also was accused of making “flirty gestures [and] sexual comments” to the student and touching her breast.
Seagroves was in court Friday for a hearing in which his attorney, Thomas Seeley, and Assistant District Attorney Julie Canter were due to present pre-trial motions for their case. Montgomery postponed the hearing until Sept. 1 after he set the October trial date.
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A 34 year old man and a 16 year old girl? That’s just crazy! What the heck was he thinking? Must not have been any pretty 34 year old female teachers around for him to flirt with. This really does happen a lot and I don’t understand how a grown man could look at a 16 year old in a sexual way. They are still kids.There are too many willing adults in this world for crap like this to happen to kids. It’s sick!!!!!!
I hope and pray that this is not the case. I know of past experiences where teenage girls can make accusations of this nature simply for the attention it gets (and I’m not implying this girl did), but if that was to be the case, I hope the teacher has a fair trial. Accusations like that tend to stick even when they are not true. If it WAS actually the case, then I hope the justice system deals with it appropriately for such inexcusable behavior.
The school systems should do an in-service at least a couple times a year reminding all teachers that inappropriate contact with a student can result in firing and even prison.
This is happening all over the country. Go to www.schoolteachernews.com and click on the Scandal page. This year they have documented over 275 of these types of incidents. In 2008 they found 478 of these kinds of cases.
Great point, evaningstar. The adults MUST set the example.
There are many cases, however, in which young people accuse adults (teachers) of things that are simply untrue. It’s gotten to the point, in some schools, that male teachers are too scared to allow students to make up a test before or after school, unless another teacher can also be there and witness that nothing inappropriate happens. Some male teachers are fearful of breaking up fights among female students because he may be accused of touching them inappropriately. It’s truly scary how easily an upset young person can ruin the career of a teacher.
Interestingly, when teachers are cleared from such charges, the media doesn’t cover it nearly as much as when they’re simply accused.
I’m in no way defending any teacher or coach who engages in such things. There are no excuses for such actions. If the charges are proven true, I believe the person should receive serious punishment, and by no means EVER be allowed around young people again!!!
I’m merely suggesting to all who may be reading this that there are always two sides to every story. Belive it or not, young people can, and do, create stories without really understanding the seriousness of the consequenses. School districts tend to act first (fire the employee) and investigate later.
Everyone always talks about the decline of the moral compass of todays youth. Well, I think the morality of teachers has also nosedived. You hear this at least once per week, I mean really..what kind of thoughts can be in your head to be a grown adult and find young people sexually attractive.
Put him in the penitentiary where he can have all the “inappropriate sexual contact” that he can stand.
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