Teacher Charged With Molesting Student Nearly 100 Times
COCOA, Fla. -- Hundreds of students and teachers at Endeavour
Elementary School in Brevard County are walking on campus Monday for
the first time since learning of disturbing allegations against an
instructor.
Daniel Cliatt
Cocoa police arrested a veteran teacher over the weekend and charged
him with molesting a student nearly 100 times.
Daniel Cliatt, 29, is accused of a crime so heinous, for his first
appearance deputies dressed him in a bulletproof vest. Wearing the
vest with his hands shackled in front of him, Cliatt appeared before a
judge for the first time Sunday, when he answered the judge's
questions.
Cliatt is accused of raping a 13-year-old repeatedly after school, at
school, every day for months.
Cocoa police say the 29-year-old, 360-pound sixth grade teacher
started by showing the boy pornography, then moved to sex acts, almost
100 of them. That didn't stop until, police say, another teacher
walked into Cliatt's classroom Friday after school.
"At first, she walked in and didn't know what she was seeing. But she
ran out and grabbed a supervisor," explained Detective Barbara
Matthews, Cocoa Police Department.
Cliatt has been a teacher at Endeavour Elementary School for five
years and he's worked there for 10. The school district is already
planning a termination hearing.
"We have been very, very cooperative. We've spent a lot of time with
the Cocoa Police Department in order to assist them in this
investigation," said Sara Stern, Brevard County School District.
Cliatt is a 2000 graduate of Rollins College. He's been at Endeavour
Elementary School for 10 years, first as a teacher's assistant, then
as a second grade teacher. He most recently taught the sixth grade.
Cliatt was in charge of 20 students.
According to the Brevard County School District, Cliatt passed every
FBI and FDLE background check.
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