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School Board Sued Over Dead Teacher's Behavior

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By THOMAS W.  KRAUSE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 19, 2007

TAMPA - At first, the girl's mother didn't quite believe her.

The Pierce Middle School sixth-grader complained that her teacher was weird, that he kept touching her head and stroking her hair.

"As a parent," the mother said, "you think it's an innocent thing."

She asked her daughter whether she should go to the school and talk with him.

" 'No, no, no, Mom,' " the mother said, quoting her daughter. "'He'll get mad.'"

"It became apparent to me that he wanted to get my daughter into a position where he could molest her," she said.

Last week, the girl, now 13, and another female student filed lawsuits against the Hillsborough County School Board. The suits allege negligence and infliction of emotional distress.

The girls and their mothers say they don't expect a big payday. Instead, they hope their suits will result in a new investigation into Steven Harold Smith to determine whether any other girls were harassed.

When the teens initially complained, in October 2006, the school opened an inquiry. It was dropped four days later.

Smith, 52, had died of a cocaine-induced heart attack.

The two girls and their mothers said they want to know how the school could keep a teacher who had a propensity to display inappropriate behavior toward female students and a crack habit. They are not being named by The Tampa Tribune because of the nature of the allegations and because the girls' ages.

"We want to know what the school knew," said their attorney, Mark Wright. "If they did know something, how in the hell could he continue to teach?"

Schools spokesman Steve Hegarty said school policy prevents him from commenting on pending lawsuits.

The Intolerant Mr. Smith

Over several years of teaching, Smith was reprimanded for a lack of organization, cleanliness issues and problems with his attitude toward students and fellow teachers.

Pierce Middle School personnel records show Smith taught a computer class at Tampa Preparatory School in 1984 and 1985.

In 1987, his wife died in an auto accident, his parents would later tell Tampa police.

From 1987 until 1991, Smith taught math in Pasco County.

After working for the next 10 years for the Florida Department of Corrections, educating inmates, Smith applied to work in Hillsborough County schools. He started as a substitute but soon was on staff full time.

In March 2003, the Pierce principal put a memo in Smith's file criticizing him for failing to follow FCAT procedure. His file seems clear until the end of 2005, when he again was reprimanded, this time for having no plan for a substitute teacher, having a disorganized classroom and a messy desk.

By late 2005, Smith's file shows complaints that he acted inappropriately toward students and colleagues.

"You acted in an intimidating manner toward students on two occasions, one of which was witnessed by two teachers," a memo from Principal Victor Fernandez reads.

A stack of papers in Smith's file document increasing problems, peaking in February 2006.

Memos direct Smith to remove a refrigerator, a microwave and a toaster oven from his classroom. The memo states that ants had formed large piles in the classroom corners and rodent droppings were found on his desk. The infestation was attributed to the food and dirty plates on Smith's desk.

That month, students and parents began to write letters complaining that Smith cursed at them and demeaned them.

"I am very concerned over the language Mr. Smith is using in his classroom," one student wrote to the principal. "I don't think telling the kids he doesn't know why he wastes his 'damn time on you kids' is proper."

The principal instructed Smith to attend seminars on disciplining difficult students and anger management classes. Follow-up memos state that he had not completed the required classes.

"You cannot lose your temper in front of students and other professionals," Fernandez wrote to Smith. "This conduct has to stop."

Trouble at Work, Trouble at Home

Smith's home life showed similar signs of a man in a tailspin.

In July 2006, Tampa police received a complaint that Smith was buying drugs in the parking lot of his apartment on West Shore Boulevard. Officers went to speak with him and found a trash bag outside. They searched the bag and found a glass pipe with cocaine residue, two marijuana stems and a plastic bag with cocaine residue.

When they confronted Smith, he admitted that twice a week he spent $20 to $60 on crack and $5 to $30 on marijuana. Smith told the officers he wanted to stop using drugs and that he was "willing to work with law enforcement," the report states.

Andrea Davis, a spokeswoman for Tampa police, said department policy requires officers to notify school officials when a school employee is arrested for child abuse or drugs. Smith was not arrested, so the school was not notified.

On Oct. 26, 2006, the mother of a 12-year-old Pierce student made an appointment to speak with the principal.

At a morning meeting, the mother said her daughter was the victim of unwanted touching by Smith and was concerned over some of his comments.

Smith, the mother said, told her daughter that he married his second wife for the wrong reason: He hadn't "gotten it" for a while. They divorced after a short marriage. He told the 12-year-old girl that she was going to be "hot" one day, like the girls on television. He also told her he once followed her home from school.

Smith tried to arrange for private tutoring with the girl, her mother said.

The mother told The Tampa Tribune that Principal Fernandez seemed angry when she told him about Smith's actions and words. He threw a pencil onto the desk, the mother said, and quoted Fernandez saying: "I told him last year to keep his sexual preferences out of my classrooms."

The End Of An Investigation

Hours after meeting with the mother, Smith was put on paid administrative leave, according to police reports. He was supposed to return to the school Oct. 31 and had a professional standards hearing scheduled for Nov. 1.

He didn't show.

A school representative went to Smith's apartment. Smith was naked on the couch, dead. Plates filled with various pills were found in the filthy apartment.

An autopsy report shows Smith was overweight, diabetic and had high blood pressure. Arteries were 20 percent to 80 percent obstructed.

The cause of death was heart disease aggravated by the cocaine in his system, a medical examiner's report states.

Wright, the attorney for the two teenage girls, said the school ended the investigation into Smith immediately after his death. This has angered both mothers. They don't want Smith's secrets to die with him.

"If there are other parents with girls who had similar problems with Smith," one mother said, "we need to know."

Reporter Thomas W. Krause can be reached at (813)259-7698 or tkrause@tampatrib.com.

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