Trigger warning: This story contains descriptions of an attempted suicide and child sexual assault that readers may find disturbing.
The SouthTech Academy teacher who is accused of having s—x with a student did more than just groom and mistreat her, according to investigators. He also arranged a suicide pact with the 16-year-old girl, according to court documents, and he went with her to a hardware store where she chose a rope to hang herself.
Less than an hour later, Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputies discovered the adolescent dangling from a tree behind a church. According to Victoria Mesa-Estrada, the girl’s lawyer, officers cut the rope and performed CPR on her before transporting her to St. Mary’s Medical Center’s pediatric intensive care unit in West Palm Beach, where she gradually made a full recovery.
In the weeks before he was arrested and charged with having a sexual relationship with a 16 y/o student, Florida teacher Damian Conti was “reminded” by a school admin not to give students rides or gifts.
What we know about his history with the school: https://t.co/Xhhqwun3WM
— Kati Kokal (@katikokal) February 20, 2024
“We’re not only talking about a sexual predator, but someone who aided and abetted her suicide attempt,” Mesa-Estrada said. “She committed suicide. She’s alive by miracle.”
Damian Conti, a 36-year-old former AP English teacher, was first accused with multiple charges of engaging in illicit sexual contact with a juvenile. He is now also accused of attempting to aid in her own attempt to suicide. Months after implying in an email to Conti’s lawyer that an attempted murder charge might be imminent, prosecutors added the charge on April 16.
“This case is much more than just the sexual abuse of a minor by a teacher,” Assistant State Attorney Alexa Ruggiero said in an email released this month to Assistant Public Defender Lily Boehmer. “Some of the most upsetting evidence includes the defendant taking this young girl to the store to buy materials to end her life.”
There is other evidence “to corroborate his involvement with her attempted suicide,” Ruggiero said. Investigators claim that in August 2023, Conti started corresponding with the student via Instagram, school email, and text messages.
He established after-school gatherings by the girl’s locker, where he welcomed her each day, and offered to be her academic coach. According to the girl’s family lawyers, he met her at Starbucks for coffee and taught her how to drive. He occasionally brought his 4-year-old son to visit her at work.
Investigators said that toward the conclusion of the first quarter, he had started making up reasons to take her out of volleyball practice and bring her into his classroom by alone. According to the student, he encouraged her to express her own frustrations and confided in her about his personal and professional lives. He started disclosing personal details about his marriage and sexual life as their trust grew.
Accused of having sex with a student, former South Tech Academy teacher Damian Conti is poised to fight the charges at trial. https://t.co/czcoqX5IoH
— The Palm Beach Post (@pbpost) April 9, 202
According to the girl, in October 2023, Conti told her he “liked her”. She claimed that after that, he started sexually abusing her, initially in a parking lot of a shopping center and later in his classroom and storage closets on the Boynton Beach campus of SouthTech.
Under Florida law, the age of consent is 18. Those who are 16 and 17 can legally consent only to a partner younger than 24.
