A 70-year-old teacher has been arrested for continuously raping one of his students, a 17-year-old girl in his classroom on a daily basis.
According to the Florida Police, the teacher, who has been identified as Tom Miller Privett, has been charged with sexual battery with a child under custodial authority.
The offence took place in Terra Environmental Research Institute Magnet School. Privett, who had been a history and government teacher at the school for 30 years, reportedly groomed the girl for years before taking her virginity in the classroom.
According to the prosecutors, Privett started touching her inappropriately in his world history class in 2012.
Detective Ismael Castill wrote: ‘These touches began as rubbing her arms while in class, then rubbing her back, and continued to kiss her on the head, cheek and partial lips,’
Privett first met the student when she was in ninth grade in 2012, and he started to engage in sexual conversations with the girl when she was in 11th grade, according to detectives.
The victim told detectives the sexual conversations escalated into sexual activity in the classroom when she was in 12th grade.
Miami Herald reported that The following year, Privett began to make ‘rude and disrespectful’ statements about the girl’s weight, which led to her developing an eating disorder to ‘look good’ for Privett.
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Police added that: “In her third year at the school, Privett allegedly began telling the victim his ‘sexual desires’ and fetishes. He then had sex with her in his classroom during her last year at the school in 2016”
The girl went to police in December. To help investigators obtain evidence, she called Privett to discuss their sexual relationship as police listened.
State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement: “When a teacher transforms from an esteemed educator to an alleged sexual predator, lives are permanently damaged, trust is betrayed, and a serious crime has been committed,”