FSI Blog

At least 150 Florida teachers have been disciplined in the past three years after being accused of sexual misconduct with students, an Orlando Sentinel review has found.

Some of the most severe cases resulted in arrests and criminal convictions for offenses such as secretly watching a boy change and shower, tricking elementary-school girls into touching a man’s genitals and having sex with minor students. But the Sentinel’s case-by-case review of teacher-discipline records from the Florida Department of Education found that a lot of the alleged misconduct did not rise to the criminal level.

Still, parents would be alarmed. Among those cases are a former Apopka High teacher accused of flashing a teenage student with whom she was having an affair; a Port Orange teacher who sent text messages to a boy, calling him “cutie” and “sexie”; a ninth-grade teacher in Tampa who asked a student about the color of her nipples; and an Orlando coach accused of using e-mail and instant messages to tell a 13-year-old girl he loved her and wanted their relationship to grow beyond friendship. Those 150 cases don’t include the dozens of educators who have been suspended or lost their teaching certificates since 2006 for molesting nonstudents, downloading porn at school, having sex in public and trying to pick up prostitutes.

Many of the cases occurred in the South Florida and Tampa Bay areas. In Central Florida, 34 teachers were disciplined in the three-year period, including 12 from Orange County, 11 from Volusia, four from Polk, three from Seminole, three from Brevard and one in Lake.

A STUDENT teacher who had a lesbian relationship with a pupil has failed to have a decision overturned that could stop her from working at schools.

The 22-year-old woman, known as “AK”, allegedly formed an intimate and sexual relationship with a year 10 student while undertaking university work experience at a state school in 2006.

None of the parties can be identified for legal reasons. The relationship was discovered after another teacher raised concerns about how “familiar” the teacher was around the girl. Later Department of Education investigators received a call from the girl’s mother, who said she found explicit text messages from the teacher on her daughter’s mobile phone. The teacher is alleged to have used her car to pick up the girl from school and take her out for coffee and food, and to have kept up the inappropriate relationship beyond her work placement, buying the student jewellery and other presents including a “KISS” T-shirt for the girl’s 16th birthday.

She had also climbed into the girl’s bedroom through her window and they lay in bed together while they were partially naked. “AK” had argued in the NSW Supreme Court that the department’s ruling be quashed as she had not been given procedural fairness during the review and the alleged misconduct had occurred after her employment contract ceased. But the court yesterday ruled the finding had been valid. The woman, who had more than a year left of her university degree, cannot be employed in any NSW government school or TAFE without direct permission from the department.

Her name will be referred to the Commission for Children and Young People to alert future employees of her behaviour.

SPRINGFIELD — A St. John’s Hospital health system trainer lost his job and is under criminal investigation. A police officer wrote in a court document that the man admitted secretly taking videos of St. John’s female clients, including one minors, while they were nude.

A source who asked to remain anonymous because he’s not authorized to release the information says the 29-year-old former employee primarily worked at the Health Tracks Facility on South Fremont Avenue. The court document doesn’t say if police think the videotaping occurred at that facility.

Police wrote in a search warrant document that they believe four women were videotaped while nude during weigh-ins. On Oct. 28, hospital security officers were made aware of the allegations. “As soon as there were reports of something inappropriate, (we) immediately called the police,” said a prepared statement from St. John’s. Security officers told Springfield police that the trainer instructed women athletes to weigh themselves nude in order to obtain a more accurate weight. Security officers told police that it’s not normal practice to have anyone weigh in naked.

Springfield police later visited the trainer’s home. The search warrant affidavit says the former trainer admitted to the videotaping and said the women were aged 20, 19, and 23. During a search of the man’s home, police say they found two videotapes in the kitchen trashcan, with the tape pulled out of the cassette. The former trainer later called police, they say, and admitted there was another athlete whom he taped nude — a 16-year-old girl. No charges are filed yet; the prosecuting attorney’s office has yet to see a probable cause statement from police and other evidence that would help prosecutors decide what crimes to charge.

Police wrote in the search warrant report that the man could face second-degree invasion of privacy charges. If the fourth victim is a minor, he could also face federal charges of making and possessing child pornography.

A Columbia Township woman who admitted to having sex with a 15-year-old boy was sentenced to six months in jail and five years probation.

Jennifer Rae Merriman, 31, told a Lenawee County sheriff’s deputy she had a sexual relationship that began in January 2007 at the boy’s home in Lenawee County’s Woodstock Township.

She recently pleaded no contest to attempted third-degree criminal sexual conduct, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

Her attorney, James Daly, said if life had a rewind button, his client would use it. For the next 25 years, her name will appear on the state’s sex offender list, he said.

“Her life is really destroyed forever,” Daly said. “It’s the new scarlet letter in our society.”

Merriman declined to address the court before being sentenced by Circuit Judge Timothy Pickard. According to the arrest warrant, the sexual relationship began in January 2007. The boy told police he had sex about 50 times with Merriman before he turned 16 in May, mostly at his home. He said the sexual relationship continued after he reached 16, the age of legal consent.

The boy’s mother discovered the relationship when she found a love letter to Merriman written by the boy, now 17, according to a police report. Merriman was arrested in March. She occasionally threatened him by telling him she would tell his parents he was using drugs if he did not have sex with her, according to the police report.

The council has rejected a submission by Free Beaches Australia to allow nude bathing at four possible sites.

Community opposition and safety concerns stopped nude beaches at Coolum and Mudjimba and Mayor Bob Abbot says Alexandria Bay at Noosa is impractical. “Council’s taken a close look at it. We’ve gone right through the process. There was a lot of objection to it in the community, particularly on some of the southern beaches,” he said.

“The northern beach where it already exists informally is inappropriate for council. It would cost a large amount of money to service it up there. “We do have advice from not only our lifeguards, but the lifesaving services that it is a very difficult place to service as far as safety is concerned and so council’s chosen not to go with that proposal either, so I certainly said at the time that I wasn’t going to be the champion, I’d let council make the decision and now we have it.”

Fritzl, 73, a retired engineer, was charged with murder and slave trade after allegedly sexually abusing and incarcerating his daughter Elisabeth, 42, in the cellar of his home, where one of the children she was forced to bear died due to lack of medical attention.

The charges, which include a detailed account of Fritzl’s suspected crimes, have been leaked to Austria’s leading tabloid Krone Zeitung. Quoting the statements of prosecutors, the newspaper reported how Fritz would allegedly force his daughter to watch porno videos with him in her underground prison and would then make her re-enact the film scenes. He reportedly coerced his daughter into having sex with him “several times a day” by “beating and kicking her” to break her fierce resistance.

Elisabeth’s will was broken with time and she gave up trying to fight her father off because her “situation was hopeless,” according to prosecutors quoted by the newspaper. Elisabeth was left to give birth to her seven children on her own, while Fritzl only made available a pair of scissors to cut the umbilical cord, a non-sterile blanket to wrap the infants in and a pack of nappies. The deliveries took place in a contaminated atmosphere without a source of fresh air and no heating or hot water. Fritzl was charged with murder for the death of his son Michael, who was born on April 28 as a twin brother of one of the surviving children.

According to prosecutors, who based their charges on the testimony of Elisabeth, Fritzl noticed how the baby turned blue and was struggling for air and had swellings on his body. However, despite his daughter’s pleas, Fritzl refused to take the baby to a hospital and readily accepted his imminent death and only said: “What must be, will be.” An expert in newborns commissioned by prosecutors determined that the baby probably died of an infection that could have been avoided or cured by timely medical attention, which would save his life. Fritzl reportedly burnt his son’s body in a heating over and then buried the ashes in his garden. Other family members would also get ill but Fritzl only allowed them basic medication such as cough syrup, nose drops and aspirin. Fritzl took three of Elisabeth’s surviving children to live with him and his wife Rosemarie, 69, while the other three had to stay with their mother and were never allowed outside until their release earlier this year.

The family including Fritzl’s wife Rosemarie were then reunited in a psychiatric clinic near Amstetten, where they received counselling and medical care. In an interview with the same newspaper, the sister of Rosemarie Fritzl, named only as Christine R, said how Fritzl’s wife became estranged from the family and had to move out of the hospital without being able to see her grandchildren regularly. Christine R, 56, said that Rosemarie changed her name to avoid the scrutiny of the press, and that Elisabeth’s three children who lived upstairs were going to school under false names. “She is suffering from psychological problems but receives no help as she is not perceived as a victim. She is only getting less than 700 euros a month and must beg from support from the state. She even had to pay the administrative fee of 350 euros for changing her name. She found a flat but must live with relatives as she cannot afford to move,” Christine R said. Rosemarie Fritzl reportedly told her sister that she did not know what her husband was doing in the cellar and that she regretted not informing the authorities when he started spending most of his time there.

She told her sister: “I should have done something then. I should have sounded the alarm.”

Bruce Elliott, whose wife owns the Old Town Ale House, painted this nude portrait of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. He said his daughter, who does a good impression of the Alaska governor, served as model. (Kuni Takahashi, Chicago Tribune / September 29, 2008)

There’s been no shortage of takeoffs on Sarah Palin lately, from television skits to action figures, but Bruce Elliott has gone one step further than most. He’s taken off her clothes.

Elliott, whose wife, Tobin Mitchen, owns the Old Town Ale House on Chicago’s North Side, painted a nude portrait of the Republican vice presidential nominee and hung it above the bar, where it’s now a prime attraction among his display of more than 200 celebrity portraits and other racy art.

Palin became Elliott’s muse after he saw her on TV. “I’ve been following her religiously,” he said Monday at the bar. “I had never heard of her before, like everyone else. I find her bizarrely fascinating, even though I pretty much despise everything she stands for.” Despite their political differences, Elliott admits to a bit of a crush on the Alaska governor. He began painting her smile and trademark glasses, he said, before filling in the details: a gun, red high heels, polar bear rug, rugged Alaska landscape and a scared moose. His daughter, who looks a little like Palin and does a great impression of her, served as model for the governor’s body.

Since Elliott, 68, hung the portrait Thursday, it’s been a steady draw at the dive bar, which is a popular spot for Second City comedians to grab beers and play pinball after shows. But after the image hit the Internet on Monday, interest exploded. “We got a bunch of people in tonight,” Elliott said. “They’re coming to take pictures with their camera phones. The photo is all over the place.”

Actress Sienna Miller has accepted £15,000 damages in an out-of-court settlement against the Daily Star over a paparazzi photo.

The 26-year-old star took action over the picture taken in Los Angeles, which she claimed violated her privacy.

The paper has also printed an apology to the Layer Cake star. The Daily Star said it accepted she was “extremely harassed and distressed by persistent pursuit and intimidating tactics” adopted by the paparazzi. “We apologise to Sienna for publishing this photograph.”

Ms Miller’s private life has been the subject of numerous newspaper stories since her failed romance with Jude Law, who she starred with in Alfie. In January, she won a High Court privacy case against a photographer who took nude pictures of her without her consent. The photos were taken while Ms Miller was filming Hippie Hippie Shake, based on the memoirs of Richard Neville.

Britney Spears’ transformation from troubled starlet to credible pop icon took something of a detour today, with news that her ex-boyfriend is offering to sell a sex tape.

Just a day after Spears announced plans for her first world tour since 2004, her Birmingham-born former partner Adnan Ghalib confirmed rumours that a Britney sex tape exists and that he would sell it for the right price. However, the paparazzo photographer refused to discuss prices for hypothetical enquiries telling Heat magazine: “Unless there is a locked-in deal, I will go no further. I am not interested in selling out any other details about Britney.”

The video was allegedly shot while on holiday in Mexico earlier this year and is thought to feature Spears wearing nothing but a pink wig. The couple dated for around three months earlier this year, in the midst of a traumatic period for the singer which saw her sectioned and enter rehab. They went their separate ways when Spears allegedly discovered Ghalib having an affair.

Kelsey Peterson’s maturity level wasn’t much higher than the sixth-grade students she taught. The 26-year-old teacher who started having sex with a former student when he was 12 wasn’t a sexual predator, but she will have to register as a sex offender when she gets out of prison.

That’s the verdict of a federal judge, who on Monday sentenced Peterson to six years behind bars for fleeing to Mexico with the boy when he was 13. U.S. District Judge Laurie Smith Camp said Peterson’s maturity level “seems to be on the level of a junior high school student,” and the boy’s attorney agreed. “Twenty-year-olds are not attracted to 12-year-olds - that’s just not normal,” attorney Amy Peck said. “She viewed herself as younger than she really was and didn’t see it as inappropriate.”

Peterson told the judge that she took responsibility for what she did, and said she wanted to move on with her life and make it better. “I am not a sexual predator. That’s not who I am,” Peterson said. But the victim, now 14 and starting 8th grade at another school, “is a changed kid,” his attorney said. “He is much quieter now,” Peck said. “He’s been through a lot.” Peterson was the boy’s sixth-grade math teacher at Lexington Middle School during the 2005-06 school year, then started having sex with him in November 2006, according to court documents. The pair disappeared in October, soon after the district’s superintendent confronted Peterson about allegations of an inappropriate relationship with the boy.

She was arrested a week later in Mexicali, Mexico, after the boy made a cell phone call to his mother. Peterson’s lawyer, James Martin Davis, acknowledged that Peterson probably won’t ever be able to teach in schools again. She’s not off the hook on state charges, either. In four years, she could be released from federal prison. She’s being credited nearly a year for time she’s already served., and could get another year off for good behavior. In the meantime, her attorney said, she’s a gifted teacher and hopes to use those skills at a women’s prison in Pekin, Ill. “I think she’s got plans to teach math in the prison while she’s there,” Davis said. “She’s already thinking along those lines.”

Meanwhile, the boy is living in Nebraska with his family, his attorney said, but she would not say where except that it’s not Lexington. She said there’s no relationship between the boy and his former teacher, and “I would fully doubt if there will be a relationship in the future.” When Peterson was arrested, the boy “felt that it was my entire fault and felt terribly bad that Kelsey was in jail,” he said in a statement provided by Peck. Peterson “often told me that there was something special about me,” he said, and she slipped him love notes after class, gave him beer and let him drive her car. The Associated Press previously named the boy as police were searching for him but stopped using his name after authorities charged Peterson with a sex crime.

He was an illegal immigrant in the United States when he left with Peterson. He’s been granted humanitarian parole by the Department of Homeland Security, and his attorney hopes to win permanent legal status for him and his family. Davis has publicly questioned the boy’s birth certificate, saying he was likely at least 16, and that he was the aggressor. Peck and the boy’s family have bristled at the suggestion, and neither Peterson nor Davis repeated it Monday. Davis secured a plea deal for Peterson that stipulated a sentence of between 70 months and 87 months. By pleading guilty, she avoided a similar charge that would have carried a mandatory 10-year minimum sentence. Peterson and her relatives and friends cried as they waved to each other across the courtroom and said, “I love you” after the hearing Monday.

“The next time I see you we can hug each other,” she told family members, including her mother and father. Her attorney says she’s just glad it’s over, but another chapter is just starting. Dawson County Attorney Elizabeth Waterman said Monday that her staff will work to get custody of Peterson so she can face the state charges, which include kidnapping, felony sexual assault and child abuse. “We’ll be ready to gear up on ours as soon as we can get custody back,” Waterman said.