Former Florida middle school teacher Daniel Norment, 41, received a three-year prison sentence on Monday for having sex with a 16-year-old girl in a classroom closet.
The judge also sentenced the former teacher to four years of probation following the completion of his prison sentence as part of a guilty plea deal.
However, the plea deal does not include the former teacher admitting guilt, the Palm Beach Post reported:
Norment, 41, left a Palm Beach County courtroom in handcuffs Monday morning, after accepting two “best interest” guilty pleas for one count of unlawful sexual activity with a minor and one count of offense against students by authority figures — both second-degree felonies.
As part of the plea, Norment does not admit guilt. He agrees, however, that a guilty plea is in his best interest.
Norment also agreed to have no contact with minors, not to work at schools, and to complete a sex offender treatment program.
The victim, now an 18-year-old college student, recently filed a lawsuit against the Palm County School District and the school board, accusing them of not preventing Norment’s grooming, which eventually led to the former teacher sexually assaulting the student.
According to the lawsuit, the victim claims that Norment started grooming her while she was one of his students at Independence Middle School in Jupiter, Florida, when she was in eighth grade.
Before the victim left for high school, they exchanged cell phone numbers.
Norment then invited the student back to the school, knowing that she needed community service hours to graduate, but they ended up spending time alone together in the classroom.
In September 2019, the former teacher invited the then-16-year-old student into a classroom closet, where he sexually assaulted her.
The lawsuit claims that administrators at the school were aware that there were red flags in Norment’s behavior but did nothing to intervene.
One administrator met with the victim after the assault occurred to ask if anything had occurred between her and Norment. The student said she was too embarrassed and scared at the time to admit what had happened and denied it.
The lawsuit alleges that Norment would bring students into his classroom closet to “counsel” them.
He was also removed from coaching the girl’s basketball team after it was allegedly discovered he would let students change clothes inside his classroom.
While the victim waited two-and-a-half years to report the incident to authorities, she did so with the intention that it would keep other students away from Norment.
The 41-year-old was arrested in May, and his employment with the school ended on July 1. His teaching license was also surrendered, according to WPTV.
You can follow Ethan Letkeman on Twitter at @EthanLetkeman.