Former Utah Teacher Who Sexually Abused 3 Students Seeks Parole Saying She's 'Remorseful'
A former Utah teacher currently serving in prison for having sexual relations with three underage students said during a parole hearing Tuesday that there was no justification for her behavior.
Brianne Altice, 37, was convicted of having sex with three of her students, aged between 16 and 17, and sentenced to serve 30 years in prison in 2015. Altice encountered one of the students while she was out on bail while facing charges for improper relationships with the other two.
The former English teacher at Davis High School in Kaysville, Utah, told the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole at her hearing on Tuesday that low self-esteem influenced her behavior. Altice also added that she hopes her victims can move beyond "my poor decisions" and live happy lives, reports The Salt Lake Tribune.
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"I had extreme self-esteem issues, and they [the victims] said things that made me feel good about myself," Altice said in the hearing, for most of which she was crying. "I just started to justify everything. I wasn't functioning in a healthy adult manner at all."
"I understand that this was my doing," she added. "This was no one's fault but my own."
Altice, a divorced mother-of-two children, had admitted in a plea agreement to having engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior with three former students -- one 16-year-old and two 17-year-old -- from January to September of 2013. The teenagers had testified confirming Altice's actions at her preliminary hearing.
At the hearing, a mother of one of the victims said: "I think people don't see how it really affects the kids, the boys. It's not a 'tie the boy down and rape him' sort of abuse. You don't know until you're a parent, really, what it is, and it's more of an emotional abuse."
Taking full responsibility for her actions, Altice has vowed to abstain from teaching and attempting any contact with her victims if freed. Altice told the board that she has earned a paralegal certification and has been focusing on life-skills classes and therapy during her incarceration at Timpanogos Women's Facility in Draper, Utah. She also added that she's willing to undergo sex-offender treatment, either behind bars or outside.
Members of the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole will now decide on either a release date for Altice or schedule another hearing based on majority vote. Vice Chairman Robert Yeates, who conducted Altice's hearing, said that a decision will be reached in about 30 days.
