Former teacher and high school coach is facing a lawsuit after serving his sentence for a sex crime

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAF) – Victims of sex crimes in DeKalb County are suing their former teacher and high school basketball coach after he sexually groomed them for years.

One of the victims and his father filed the lawsuit Tuesday against 32-year-old Dustin Dalton, who had just completed a three-year prison sentence in June.

Dalton — a former sixth-grade math teacher and Sylvania High School varsity basketball coach — pleaded guilty to three sex crimes in 2021 after it was revealed he began sexually abusing two of his male students/players when they were 12 and 13 years old .

The lawsuit details Dalton’s behavior with the children and alleges that Dalton sent sexually explicit Snapchat messages to both boys. This included sending him links to porn sites and photos of his genitals before asking the children for photos of themselves.

Both children came to the school counselor with evidence on October 2, 2020, and Dalton resigned later that Friday before being arrested the following Monday.

The lawsuit also focused on school leaders’ failure to protect their students.

It says that in 2016 — four years before Dalton resigned — a mother spoke to Sylvania High principal Wesley King about Dalton’s relationship with her sixth-grade son. She never received a response from King again after that day.

One of the school’s basketball coaches later raised his own concerns about Dalton hosting late-night parties for students and players at his home, but even then the school system took no action.

Eric Artrip is the victims’ attorney and has handled school sex abuse cases for years. He says this is far from the first time school officials have failed to protect their students from predators.

“Educators in general often enjoy a code of silence among them, where those things are kept close to the vest, and they maintain some denial later down the road,” Artrip said.

After Dalton resigned in 2020, school leaders did not immediately send a report to law enforcement, which the lawsuit alleges violates Alabama’s Mandatory Reporting Law.

It then says Dalton was given the opportunity to return to the school the next day for his belongings before throwing away his cell phone. Two days later he was arrested.

Artrip says what Dalton did will haunt the victims for the rest of their lives, but hopefully exposing all the guilty parties here will put an end to the case.

“I think we can help them get to the truth and find out what people knew and when they knew it,” he said. “Could this have been prevented, or could it have been stopped sooner so that they didn’t have to suffer what they went through?”

DeKalb County Superintendent Jason Barnett and Principal King both left their jobs following Dalton’s arrest in 2020. While King retired, Barnett now holds the position of superintendent with the Guntersville school system.

“It is a poignant fact of cases like this that these people – even if they are aware of this type of behavior – can still find a place in our education system,” Artrip said.

He plans to take on Barnett, King and other Sylvania school officials in a separate lawsuit in the coming months.

Click here to subscribe to YouTube: Watch the latest WAFF 48 news, sports and weather videos on our YouTube channel!