STATE OF FLORIDA

DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS

BETTY CASTOR, as Commissioner )

)

Petitioner, )

)

v. ) CASE NO. 88-5532

)

REGINALD CROOMS, )

)

Respondent. )

)

RECOMMENDED ORDER

Pursuant to notice, final hearing in the above-styled case was held on March 9, 1989, in Orlando, Florida, before Robert E. Meale, Hearing Officer of the Division of Administrative Hearings.

The parties were represented as follows:

APPEARANCES

For Petitioner: J. David Holder, Esquire

Rigsby & Holder Suite 200

1408 North Piedmont Way Tallahassee, Florida 32312

For Respondent: no appearance

BACKGROUND

By Administrative Complaint dated April 18, 1988, Petitioner alleged that Respondent, who at all material times held a Florida teaching certificate, was employed as a teacher at Winter Park High School during the 1985-1986 school year. The Administrative Complaint alleged that Respondent made numerous sexual remarks to female students during the school day. This behavior allegedly constituted gross immorality or moral turpitude, in violation of Section 231.28(1)(c), Florida Statutes; personal conduct seriously reducing his effectiveness as an employee of the school board, in violation of Section 231.28(1)(f) , Florida Statutes; the failure to make reasonable effort to protect the student from conditions harmful to learning or to health and safety, in violation of Rule 6B-1.006(3)(a), Florida Administrative Code; the intentional exposure of a student to unnecessary embarrassment or disparagement, in violation of Rule 6B-1.006(3)(e), Florida Administrative Code; and the exploitation of a professional relationship with a student for personal gain or advantage, in violation of Rule 6B- 1.006(3)(h), Florida Administrative Code.

By letter filed with the Education Practices Commission on October 25, 1988, Respondent requested that an earlier default be set aside so that he could receive a hearing on the charges. The Education Practices Commission consented

and retransmitted the file on October 31, 1988, to the Division of Administrative Hearings for a hearing.

At the hearing, Petitioner presented nine witnesses and offered into evidence one exhibit, which was admitted. Respondent never appeared at the hearing.

Petitioner filed a proposed recommended order. The recommended order adopts or adopts in substance all of the proposed findings.

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. Respondent holds Florida teaching certificate 310395 covering the areas of biology and science. During the 1985-1986 school year, he taught ecology and science courses at Winter Park High School in the Orange County School District until he was relieved from duty on March 13, 1986, as a result of an investigation into the incidents and behavior described below.

   
   

2. During the school day, Respondent repeatedly harassed the female students with sexual remarks, attempts at sexual humor, and requests for sexual favors and intimacies. The sexual harassment so permeated the classroom that Respondent was completely unable to discharge his professional teaching responsibilities.

   
   

3. Faye Zentner was a senior at Winter Park High School during the 1985- 1986 school year. Notwithstanding the fact that Respondent knew that she was a student, he repeatedly asked her to go with him on a date, followed by dinner and bed. Unsolicited, he gave her his home telephone number and told her to call him. He frequently remarked on her clothing, advising her that she should not wear such nice clothes. He often communicated by notes that he would show her and then tear up.

   
   

4. Ruth Evans was a senior at Winter Park High School during the 1985-1986 school year. She was in Respondent's science class. Respondent repeatedly complimented her on her dress. He would intentionally drop a pencil and watch her while she picked it up. At different times, Respondent told her that he "wanted her body" and thought that she had a "nice ass." He also told her that he wanted to "get between her legs." He asked her to go out with him and then to his place. One afternoon when Ms. Evans asked to leave class 10 minutes early for a school-sponsored softball game, Respondent's response was, "If you're not going to do anything for me, why should I do anything for you?"

   
   

5. Kristen Fischer was a senior at Winter Park High school during the 1985-1986 school year. She was in Respondent's ecology class. Looking at her breasts and body while speaking, Respondent would frequently tell Ms. Fischer that he liked what he saw, including her tight jeans. As with the other female students, Respondent asked Ms. Fischer to go out with him and have a drink.

   
   

6. The testimony of the remaining female students reiterated the above testimony and established a pattern of sexual harassment on the part of Respondent. Respondent summoned Juliana Gomes from the classroom and, in the hall, commented on her appearance and asked her out on dates. Ms. Gomes finally began reporting to school late in order to avoid her first-period class with Respondent. Respondent told jokes involving female body parts, such as the vagina, to Laurie Kreitner, another student. When she would not listen to these jokes privately at his desk, Respondent would tell them publicly to the entire class. Respondent regularly asked Sheila Buchanan, another of his students,

   what she was doing on that Friday night and where she would be. At spring break, he found out where she and her girlfriends would be staying at the beach and gave them his hotel room and telephone numbers with an invitation to call him.

   
   

7. During the entire term in ecology, Respondent administered only one test and a couple of quizzes. Otherwise, the students and Respondent sat around and talked about movies and matters unrelated to the subject of the class. On more than one occasion, Respondent admitted that his grades were a reflection of whom he liked and whom he did not like. Respondent even allowed Ms. Buchanan to grade half of the finals, and she gave good grades to her friends.

   
   

   CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

   
   

8. The Division of Administrative Hearings has jurisdiction over the parties and the subject matter. Section 120.57(1), Florida Statutes.

   
   

9. The Education Practices Commission has the authority to suspend, revoke, or otherwise discipline the teaching certificate of a person who has been found guilty of: gross immorality or moral turpitude, in violation of Section 231.28(1)(c), Florida Statutes; personal conduct that seriously reduces his effectiveness as an employee of the school board, in violation of Section 231.28(1)(f), Florida Statutes; or other violation of statute or rule whose violation is punishable by revocation, in violation of Section 231.28(1)(h), Florida Statutes. Section 231.28(1), Florida Statutes.

   
   

10. Rule 6B-1.006(3)(e), Florida Administrative Code, prohibits an educator from intentionally exposing a student to unnecessary embarrassment or disparagement.

    
    

11. Rule 6B-1.006(3)(h), Florida Administrative Code, prohibits an educator from exploiting a professional relationship with a student for personal gain or advantage.

    
    

12. Petitioner must prove the material allegations by clear and convincing evidence. Ferris v. Turlington, 510 So.2d 292 (Fla. 1987).

    
    

13. Petitioner has satisfied her burden of proof that Respondent has been guilty of conduct that seriously reduces his effectiveness as an employee of the Orange County School Board. It is therefore unnecessary to consider whether the above- described incidents and behavior violate other cited portions of the statutes or rules.

    
    

14. Petitioner has cited three final orders from the Education Practices Commission with respect to the appropriate penalty. In Betty Castor v. Terrell

    V. Clay, Case No. 88-140-RT, Petitioner permanently revoked the certificate of a substitute teacher at a junior high school, who had offered to pay a female student to have sex with him, fell asleep during class and could not be woken up, and teased the students by, among other things, poking fun at the size of one student's penis.

    
    

15. In Betty Castor v. Marvin Stokes, Case No. 88-085-RT (DOAH Case No.

    88-3159), Petitioner permanently revoked the certificate of a guidance counselor at a middle school, who became obsessed with a 12-year old female student, compiled a scrapbook with photographs of her from kindergarten to present, called her at home with disguised voices, sent love letters and bad poems to her directly and through intermediaries, summoned her repeatedly from her classes in

    order to spend hours alone with her, and gave her a gold necklace engraved, "I love you."

    
    

16. In Betty Castor v. Enrique Blanco, File No. 87190-L, Petitioner permanently revoked the certificate of a substitute teacher of a junior high school art class, who told sexually offensive jokes involving the "fucking" of a wheelchair-bound woman and the "pusher" with respect to pot or sex. He likewise told similar jokes while a substitute teacher in a high school.

    
    

17. In a Settlement Agreement concluding Betty Castor v. Raymond J. Bewley, Jr., Case No. 88-105-R, Petitioner suspended for three years the certificate of a high-school teacher, who made inappropriate sexual remarks, hugged a student several times aggressively, pinched a student on the waist and buttocks, and gave his home telephone number to a student with an invitation to call him if she ever needed to talk to him. The agreement required the teacher to obtain professional counselling and serve two years probation following reinstatement.

    
    

18. Respondent's behavior was egregious in that it deprived a number of female students of a classroom learning experience and destroyed the trust and confidence that a high school student has a right to expect to be able to place in his or her teachers. The relative youth of the students in several of the above-cited cases renders those cases more egregious in that respect. However, the repeated, uninvited sexual harassment in this case, which completely eliminated Respondent's effectiveness as a teacher for several students, warrants a severe penalty. In one sense, Respondent quit teaching well prior to the investigation that led to his termination.

RECOMMENDATION

Based on the foregoing, it is hereby

RECOMMENDED that Respondent's teaching certificate be permanently revoked. ENTERED this 3rd day of May, 1989, in Tallahassee, Florida.

ROBERT D. MEALE

Hearing Officer

Division of Administrative Hearings The DeSoto Building

1230 Apalachee Parkway

Tallahassee, FL 32399-1550

COPIES FURNISHED:

Karen B. Wilde, Executive Director Education Practices Commission

125 Knott Building Tallahassee, Florida 32301

Martin Schaap, Administrator Professional Practices Services

319 West Madison Street, Room 3 Tallahassee, Florida 32399

J. David Holder, Esquire Rigsby & Holder

Suite 200

1408 North Piedmont Way Tallahassee, Florida 32312

Reginald Crooms

617 South Delaney Avenue, No. 19

Orlando, Florida 32801

Docket for Case No: 88-005532

Orders for Case No: 88-005532