Joseph Kade Abbott was a teacher at the Apostolic Christian Academy in Maryville, Tennessee. Apostolic Christian Academy is a private Christian school. The Student Manual asserts their values which as fundamentalist and evangelical. Unsurprisingly, they assert:
Abbott was arrested in North Carolina in January, 2023, and brought to Blount County, Tennessee, for arraignment. The family originally went to the police in June. He was arrested for sexually abusing a fourteen-year-old girl. The charge of sexual battery by an authority figure is used against defendants who use their job or legal status to take advantage of their victim, or have parental or custodial authority.
He no longer works for the Academy but was on the staff at the beginning of the school year in August when the girl’s family sued the Academy for its failure to protect their daughter from him. They claimed she was sexually assaulted several times the year before. The school had announced they had achieved Partner In Prevention status which meant they had taken steps to prevent sexual abuse.
He has since moved to Charlotte, North Carolina.
In March, 2023, new charges were added involving the same child in Sevier County, Tennessee. He has a hearing July 7, 2023.
In March, 2024, he agreed to plead guilty to all three counts counts of sexual assault by an authority figure against a 14-year-old girl.
UPDATE: He has been sentenced to six years in prison.
- Knoxville News Sentinel: Former teacher at Maryville Apostolic academy accused of sexually abusing 14-year-old girl
- Knoxville News Sentinel: Former Maryville Apostolic teacher faces new sexual abuse charges in Sevier County
- Knox.com: Former Maryville Apostolic teacher Kade Abbott to plead guilty to sexual abuse charges
- Knox.com: Maryville Apostolic teacher sentenced to prison time for sexual assault of student
Knoxville, Tennessee · Saturday, January 21, 2023
