MARYVILLE, Tenn. — As the investigation into a former Blount County teacher widens, Tennessee law shows the charges that fit the crimes he's accused of only offer a maximum sentence of six months behind bars for each charge.
Joseph Dalton pleaded guilty to five offensive touching charges, which are misdemeanors, a few weeks ago. He's set to be sentenced in Blount County next month.
"There's a whole bunch of parents out there that think the man ought to get to spend at least one night in the jail, in general population," said Mike Akard, Blount County Commissioner, to a packed meeting on Thursday.
Several survivors of sexual assault spoke during the meeting, including Gracie Jones. Jones said her family filed the first complaint against Dalton in 2005, but their concerns fell on deaf ears.
She said she's happy to advocate for other people who reported they had been touched inappropriately by Dalton, but she doesn't understand why he wasn't fired by the school system.
Records show that Blount County Schools allowed Dalton to move across elementary schools in Walland, Friendsville and Townsend after people filed complaints against him. Jones said she was in kindergarten at Porter Elementary School when Dalton touched her inappropriately.
"I felt, I remember at the time, I felt so disgusted," she said. "I was uncomfortable and it's just disgusting the way I felt, and I didn't know what sexual assault was at the time, but I knew it was wrong."
The Blount County Commission voted in favor of expanding an investigation into Dalton and a representative of Blount County Schools said the school system is on board with the plan.
The representative said at the meeting that an outside agency has been consulted about doing a "human resources" investigation into the school system, but only wants to investigate instances that occurred over the past ten years.
Complaints against Dalton started nearly 20 years ago, and members of the Blount County Commission said they want the investigation to go back as far as the complaints do.