West Palm Teacher Made Suicide Pact With 16YO Student He Was Sexually Abusing

[Sugar Cookie]

Investigators say the SouthTech Academy teacher accused of having sex with a student did more than groom and abuse her. According to court records, he also made a suicide pact with the 16-year-old girl and accompanied her to a hardware store where she picked out a rope to hang herself.

Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputies found the teenager hanging from a tree behind a church less than an hour later. The girl's attorney, Victoria Mesa-Estrada, said deputies cut the rope and resuscitated her before taking her to the pediatric intensive care unit of St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach, where she slowly recovered.

“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."

Initially charged with several counts of unlawful sexual activity with a child, former AP English teacher Damian Conti, 36, now faces an additional count of attempting to assist in self-murder. Prosecutors added the charge on April 16, months after suggesting in an email to Conti's attorney that an attempted murder charge may be pending.

Conti, who was seen accompanying the student as she picked out 30 feet of rope and 15 feet of chain, has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.

According to investigators, Conti began communicating with the student over school email, text and Instagram in August 2023.

He offered to serve as the girl's academic mentor and created after-school meetups near her locker, where he greeted her every day. Attorneys for the girl's family said he gave her driving lessons and met her at Starbucks for coffee. He sometimes visited her where she worked, his 4-year-old son in tow.

He gave her gifts and encouraged her to join the volleyball club he coached.

By the end of the first quarter, investigators say he had begun creating excuses to remove her from volleyball practice and take her into his classroom alone. The student said he confided in her about his work and home life and encouraged her to vent her own frustrations. As their trust deepened, he began sharing intimate secrets about his marriage and sex life.

The girl said Conti told her he "liked her" in October 2023. She said he then began to assault her sexually — first in a shopping plaza parking lot and then in his classroom and in storage closets on SouthTech's campus in Boynton Beach.

Read complete article here

Girl told SouthTech teacher she wanted to kill herself. He let her buy the rope to do it.

Attorneys say former AP English teacher Damian Conti made a suicide pact with the student he sexually abused on and off campus.

www.palmbeachpost.com

 

[Turd Fergusen]

Wow, they don't make pieces of shit much bigger than this!

 

[thuumpr]

give him a rope and a tree.
cut him down and revive.
repeat!

 

[BuffettGirl]

Kill it. Kill it with fire!

 

[Symmachus]

Yep, this dude is definitely a ropist.

"We should hang out sometime."

 

[BuffettGirl]

Yep, this dude is definitely a ropist.

"We should hang out sometime."

We're both not right in the head...

 

[Sugar Cookie]

Name:	CONTI, DAMIAN J

Current Release Date:	11/22/2058

Current Prison Sentence History:​

Offense Date	Offense	Sentence Date	County	Case No.	Prison Sentence Length
12/01/2023	ADLT SEX W/16-17 YR OLD	07/29/2025	PALM BEACH	2401096	25Y 0M 0D
12/01/2023	ADLT SEX W/16-17 YR OLD	07/29/2025	PALM BEACH	2401096	10Y 0M 0D
12/01/2023	ADLT SEX W/16-17 YR OLD	07/29/2025	PALM BEACH	2401096	5Y 0M 0D
12/01/2023	ADLT SEX W/16-17 YR OLD	07/29/2025	PALM BEACH	2401096	5Y 0M 0D