STATE OF FLORIDA

DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS

SCHOOL BOARD OF PINELLAS COUNTY, )

)

Petitioner, )

)

vs. ) CASE NO. 84-4066

)

BRUCE BENEBY, )

)

Respondent. )

)

RECOMMENDED ORDER

Pursuant to notice, the Division of Administrative Hearings, by its duly designated Hearing Officer, K. N. Ayers, held a public hearing in the above- styled case on April 18, 1985, at Clearwater, Florida.

APPEARANCES

For Petitioner: Usher L. Brown, Esquire

Post Office Box 6374 Clearwater, Florida 33518

For Respondent: Respondent was neither

present nor represented.

By letter dated November 12, 1984, Bruce Beneby, Respondent, requested a hearing to contest his dismissal from the Pinellas County school system. As grounds for dismissal it is alleged that on or about October 29, 1984, during an altercation with a student on the campus of Dixie Hollings Senior High School Respondent brandished a music stand at the student and later threatened the student with a pair of scissors. It is also alleged that Respondent wrongfully discarded School Board property (textbook). These acts are alleged to constitute misconduct in office.

At the hearing Petitioner called five witnesses who witnessed the actions of Respondent on October 29, 1984.

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. On October 29, 1984, Bruce E. Beneby, Respondent, was on the instructional staff at Dixie Hollings Senior High School as band instructor.

   
   

2. Dennis Hale, a detective in the Pinellas County Sheriff's Department, went to Dixie Hollings Senior High School around 5:00 p.m., October 29, 1984, to pick up his son after band practice and to ask Respondent why he had thrown Hale's son's textbook in the garbage. Upon his arrival at the school in the vicinity of the bandroom, Hale observed Beneby running around the building with his shirt off. One of the milling students told Hale that Beneby was about to

   fight a student. When Hale arrived at the scene he observed Beneby holding a pair of scissors in a threatening manner toward the student, Ellis Tedrick.

   Tedrick had a six-foot length of drain pipe. Neither struck the other. Hale told both to stop but was not obeyed until he produced his sheriff's badge.

   
   

3. Earlier, after band practice, Tedrick asked Beneby why he had thrown some of the girls off the Re Belle squad. He and Beneby got into an argument and Beneby picked up a band stand with which he threatened Tedrick.

   
   

4. Other witnesses testified regarding Beneby's aggressiveness on other occasions. Testimony respecting Beneby having a gun in his briefcase to protect himself from the parents of students in his class is disregarded. No charge of this nature was made against Respondent as reason for his dismissal.

   
   

5. No evidence was presented by any witness that observed Respondent destroy or throw away school property such as textbooks.

   
   

   CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

   
   

6. The Division of Administrative Hearings has jurisdiction over the parties to, and the subject matter of, these proceedings.

   
   

7. Section 231.36(6)(a), Florida Statutes, authorizes dismissal of instructional staff for just cause which is defined to include misconduct in office.

   
   

8. Voluntarily entering into a confrontation with a student constitutes misconduct in office. Threatening a student with a band stand and with scissors, both of which could constitute lethal weapons, also constitutes misconduct in office.

   
   

9. From the foregoing it is concluded that on October 29, 1984, Bruce E. Beneby, while on the instructional staff at Dixie Hollings Senior High School, voluntarily engaged in an altercation with a student during which altercation Respondent threatened the student with bodily harm by use of a band stand and a pair of scissors. This constitutes misconduct. It is

RECOMMENDED that Bruce E. Heneby be dismissed as a teacher by the Pinellas County School Hoard.

ENTERED this 14th day of May, 1985, at Tallahassee, Florida.

K. N. AYERS Hearing Officer

Division of Administrative Hearings The Oakland Building

2009 Apalachee Parkway

Tallahassee, Florida 32301

(904) 488-9675

Filed with the Clerk of the Division of Administrative Hearings this 14th day of May, 1985.

COPIES FURNISHED:

Usher L. Brown, Esquire Associate School Board Attorney Post Office Box 6374 Clearwater, Florida 33518

Bruce E. Beneby

601 - 45th Street South

St. Petersburg, Florida 33711

Scott N. Rose, Ed.D Superintendent

Post Office Box 4688 Clearwater, Florida 33518

Docket for Case No: 84-004066

Orders for Case No: 84-004066