Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
State Board suspends teacher license for three years in Joseph Dalton case after divided vote
Summary
After hours of legal briefing and board debate, the Tennessee State Board of Education voted 7-2 to suspend the license of educator Joseph Dalton for three years with conditions, following a criminal plea to five misdemeanor counts of offensive touching.
The Tennessee State Board of Education voted 7-2 on Aug. 7 to suspend the license of educator Joseph Dalton for three years and require conditions before any reinstatement.
Board members acted after hearing from the department's legal team about criminal proceedings and reviewing limited investigative materials. Todd Madison, senior associate counsel for the board, told members the criminal case resulted in Dalton pleading guilty to five counts described as "offensive touching" and receiving six months of criminal probation.
The board's action follows an earlier motion, offered by State Board member Mister Mollenhauer, to revoke Dalton's license outright; that motion failed on a 4-5 roll call vote. Mollenhauer told the board, "Even if we don't have video footage of it, we have someone who's pled guilty to five counts of misdemeanor assault. Do we want this person in the classroom now, and do we want them in a classroom ever?" He later moved to revoke; the motion failed.
After further discussion, the board adopted a different penalty. The final motion,…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
