Former Escambia School Employee Gets 6.5 Years In Prison For Sexual Relationship With Tate High Student

November 28, 2021

A former Escambia County School District employee has been sentenced to state prison for a sexual relationship with a Tate High School student.

Susan Elizabeth Weddle of Cantonment was convicted of  felony sexual battery on a victim 16 or 17 years old and lewd and lascivious behavior with a victim 12-16 year old. She was sentenced by Judge Joel Boles to 78 months (6.5 years) on each count, to be served concurrently, followed by five years probation.

Weddle, now 42, was also designated a sexual offender. She was ordered to pay court costs and enter a sexual offender treatment program. Once released, she is prohibited from working or volunteering where children regularly play or congregate, including schools, parks, playgrounds and daycares. She is prohibited from having contact with any children under age 18 without assessment and is not allowed to have unsupervised contact with her children.

On November 22, 2019, a male Tate High School student alleged he was having sex with “forty year old” Susan Weddle, according to an arrest report. The student told a school counselor about the relationship, and said his mother was aware of the allegation and had taken his cell phone away from him because she discovered text messages between him and Weddle.

A witness reported seeing the victim and Weddle kissing at her house, the report states.

When interviewed by authorities, the student confessed to having sex with Weddle “several hundred times” over about a year and half beginning when he was 15-years old at locations that included her house, his house, the beach and her vehicle. The student stated he believed he was in love with Weddle, and the pair routinely shared nude photographs by phone. He stated those phones were destroyed or factory reset. He said the relationship started in October 2018 when he was at her house because he was friends with her son. The Tate student said he became intoxicated and persuaded her to have sex with him, according to an arrest report.

A witness said he saw Weddle and the student kissing in the kitchen during a party at her house, and he said the student admitted to having sex with Weddle after the party. He also told investigators that he saw a video he believed showed the student having sex with Weddle, but no faces could be seen in the video.

The student told investigators that during their relationship, Weddle provided him with an iPhone, necklace and bracelet, but they were gifts, not payment for anything.

Comments

15 Responses to “Former Escambia School Employee Gets 6.5 Years In Prison For Sexual Relationship With Tate High Student”

  1. Sherri on December 1st, 2021 9:27 am

    She needs to be put in a mental institution. Her “elevator” doesn’t even leave the ground floor! There are some serious issues going on here. It does not mention whether or not she is married or divorced. Look at the case of Mary Latiernou. Her little “fling” led to her having a child. I guess we are lucky that this woman didn’t conceive his child. I was required to take a psych eval that lasted nearly 5 hours because I am having bariatric surgery. That being said, maybe future employees should be required to take some sort of psych eval that would pinpoint people with these sort of mental issues. This is unreal.

  2. Susie on November 29th, 2021 9:38 am

    I’m still disgusted by this woma….”thing’s” crime. Someone please tell us how a mother of a child the same age can be sexually attracted to his friend? No…never mind. This is truly bewildering how the Judge can be so lenient. He must not have children.

  3. victims on November 29th, 2021 9:09 am

    should have gotten 5 years for every offense, to run consecutive.

  4. concerned on November 29th, 2021 8:40 am

    think about this for a minute had she went to jail on this charge later to find out she was carrying his baby do you think the outcome would have been different. say later on she wants to marry or might want child support?

  5. Harris Alice on November 28th, 2021 10:38 pm

    Florida prisoners must serve a minimum of 85% of their sentence. 85% of 6.5 years is 5.5 years, not 2.5 years.

  6. Paul on November 28th, 2021 8:34 pm

    No doubt there’s a double standard here.

  7. Chris on November 28th, 2021 8:21 pm

    @lehomey, the registry isn’t for safety or anything else Big Daddy Government may purport it to be. It is to ostracize the offender from the community once the sentence is complete. That’s why.

  8. NCG on November 28th, 2021 7:09 pm

    Not condoning such activities, but 6.5 years in prison for an inappropriate relationship (yes, inappropriate is what it is) with a person less than 365 days under the age of consent in most states in this country. Wow. Not to mention the life-long punishment that isn’t one – the registry.

    Had she sold drugs to this child, or beat this student to death or run him over on her third DUI she would not be registering for one second. Had this child accompanied her on a bank robbery, he would be prosecuted, and possibly, if not likely, as an adult.

    After all – wasn’t that long ago that the State of Florida tried its darnedest to prosecute a 12 year old as an adult…. funny how a 15 year old is a child incapable of any decision making (can we not expect a 15 year old to decline to get it on with the teacher?) but a 12 year old is not only responsible, but so as an adult.

  9. lehomey on November 28th, 2021 12:01 pm

    @RAD,
    you are quite correct about those studies. Why, then, put this woman on the list? Why have the list in the first place?

  10. Kane on November 28th, 2021 11:40 am

    @RAD Hey bud you misread that was 6.5 years in prison total and then 5 years of Probation which you serve after you are released and this means she’ll be out in 2.5 years and then start 5 years of Probation.

  11. RAD on November 28th, 2021 10:39 am

    Very generous of the judge to allow these two convictions to run concurrently. With gain time she will be out and on probation in 5.5 years instead of 11 years if they were served end to end.

    I do find it confusing she was only charged once for felony sexual battery when the victim stated they had sex hundreds of times. The Grand Jury could have charged her with multiple counts and most times do.

    At least she did not just get a slap on the wrist, no prison time, and a few years of probation.

    Remember folks, studies have shown 95% of these types of offenses are by people not on the registry and 90% or more of them are known to the victim. From articles just on this website in the past decade we have seen teachers, coaches, school administrators, baby sitters, friends, relatives, etc. charged and convicted of these crimes. It’s not the people you or your kids don’t know, it’s the ones you do.

  12. Susie on November 28th, 2021 9:00 am

    Disgusting….and that makes her even more disgusting. I’m not even going to bring up Mental Health Care. That doesn’t seem to help these pedophiles. They need to all be locked up together for life away from the World.

  13. Good grief on November 28th, 2021 8:52 am

    Apparently she wanted to go to prison! How stupid can one be????

  14. mnon on November 28th, 2021 7:23 am

    Again, if this had been a man, that’s life in prison…

    I don’t ever want to hear a feminist say anything about equal rights to me again.

  15. Billy on November 28th, 2021 6:35 am

    Men get 20 years to life, women get a 1/3 for the same crime.