She waited five years to confront Tom Privet, a former high school teacher who groomed and manipulated her on campus. A man who raped her many times in the classroom.
Now 23, she walked to the podium in a Miami-Dade court on Wednesday. Privet was handcuffed and sat in a jury box a few steps away. She couldn’t control her anger.
“You are a monster!” She cried out loud. “F — you!”
She stopped to compose herself. Privet had a stone face behind the mask. A former student talked about how Privet, a well-known government teacher at the Terra Enbian Research Institute’s Magnet School, used her to deal with family deaths and other difficulties.
“You manipulated me psychologically and brainwashed. You made me worship the ground you walked on. When I didn’t do what you asked me, you insulted me. You started touching me when I was 14, “she added,” I was a doll and you were a string that controlled all my movements. “
Five years after the abuse ended, she confronted the now 72-year-old Privet, who pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault of helpless victims on Wednesday. He agreed to two years of prison life, as well as two years of house arrest and 20 years of probation by sex offenders.
The blessed judicial transaction of the victim ensured that he would be a convicted serious offender, eliminating the need to testify in testimony or trial.
His victims began to applaud when Miami-Dade police officers handcuffed him away. “Rotten b — h,” the young woman muttered.
The judge sentenced Privet to a sentence on Wednesday, more than a year later, by police at a Miami-Dade school. Arrested a retired teacher And he was charged with a number of felony charges. Judge Ramiro Areses of the Circuit Court also said that Privet was considered a sex offender and had to keep a curfew if released under surveillance.
His decision is at least 6 Former Miami-Dade Teachers, In another case, he was arrested over the past month for being accused of sexual misconduct or an attack on a former student.
Another former Miami-Dade teacher, Jason Myers, is still awaiting a criminal trial for allegations that he was involved in illegal sexual activity with a student.The jury recently went to the Miami-Dade School District Pay $ 6 million Former student of Palmetto High, one of Myers’ victims, did not deal with allegations of sexual misconduct
When it comes to pre-bet, he’s an oversized figure at Homestead’s South Dade High, where he teaches the government, leads the champion’s cross-country team, and is the school’s acclaimed mock trial team for aspiring lawyers. Was established. He later moved to Terra, and after meeting her in 2012, began caring for the last minor victim.
After being arrested in the Terra case Former students and faculty members He told the Miami Herald that questions about prebet behavior with a young schoolgirl had swirled around him for years.
A former South Dade journalism student kisses a girl in a parking lot in a drawer full of photos printed in a darkroom in a journalism class in the early 2000s (sneak shot with a long zoom lens). Said was sitting.
Police detectives believed that from that time in the early 2000s they had identified a former student who might have been the victim of a pre-bet. But she didn’t want to cooperate with the Miami-Dade School criminal law enforcement agency testified in April 2020.
Another victim, now living in the Midwest, detailed her story to Herald and later to the prosecutor. She said when she was a summer school student in South Dade in the late 1980s, Privet manipulated her for months of sexual encounters in a van parked in South Dade.
On Wednesday, she saw a pre-bet decision through Zoom.
“As a woman and mother, I got sick and scared when I learned of your recent victims,” she said in a letter read by Miami-Dade prosecutor Natalie Snyder. I told the court. “I’ve been very guilty of not doing anything to stop you in the last 30 years. You’ve finally got some of what you deserve.”
As part of the judicial transaction, Privet had to publicly apologize to a former Terahai student. It was lukewarm at best.
“I apologize for being involved in my behavior and improper relationships with you when I was in high school. It was my responsibility as an adult to maintain a proper relationship between students and teachers. I failed, “said Privet. “I hope the pain I caused will heal you. I’m sorry.”
After hearing, the woman called his apology “dishonest” and said it was catharsis that finally confronted Privet. “It was like releasing a terrifying, disgusting energy,” she said.
A few years after she left Terrahai and finally reported her prebet, she said she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder, and eating disorders. “He ruined my life,” she said.
But there is hope. She is currently in college, studying psychology, and hopes to one day work as a counselor or therapist specializing in helping victims of sexual abuse.
She said: “I want to be that support for them.”