PIGEON FORGE, Tenn. — Records in Tennessee show a teacher and coach fired for fondling elementary school students and sexually harassing teachers was relicensed by the state and hired at another school where he now faces similar allegations.
The Knoxville News Sentinel reported Friday that 40-year-old Daniel Allen Turner is charged with attempted soliciting sexual exploitation of a 13-year-old at the second school. Turner’s license had been renewed months after his June 2017 firing, despite him being on unpaid leave for a year as the first school system sought to fire him.
The state school board says it was never told by the first school system that Turner was fired for being sexually inappropriate with students. A football coach who recommended Turner for the new job says he also didn’t know.
Just last week, WREG reported on a similiar incident involving a teacher here in Shelby County. Jasmine Edmond taught at Trezevant until her contract was not renewed by Shelby County Schools last school year following an investigation into allegations that she was involved in an inappropriate relationship with a student.
According to emails and documents with the Tennessee State Board of Education, Edmond was suspended in March 2018, and let go in June 2018 for inappropriate physical contact with a student.
But the records weren’t sent to the state until WREG began asking questions last week, allowing Edmond to be hired at another school in Memphis, Power Center Academy.
Edmond was indicted by a grand jury in November 2018. Memphis Police charged her in January with sexual contact with a minor.
A mugshot for Turner was not available.
