TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Repeating Rumor Of Teacher-Boy Affair Got Student Suspended

JAY NOLAN / The Tampa Tribune

Shatavia Kendricks, 15, wipes tears from her eyes while standing next to her mother, Thelma Reeves, during a press conference Thursday night.

ADVERTISEMENT

By VALERIE KALFRIN and CHRIS ECHEGARAY, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 26, 2007

Updated: 10/26/2007 12:22 am

Video: Student Speaks | Previous Coverage

TAMPA - After being called a gossip-monger and then suspended from school for repeating a rumor, Shatavia Kendricks feels vindicated.

The 15-year-old Middleton High School student told a school official about rumors of an affair between a teacher and a student.

No one believed her.

The teacher and the student denied it.

Kendricks kept talking anyway, so the school sent her home.

Then the teacher, Christina Lin Butler, 33, was arrested this week.

Christina Lin Butler

A school assistant principal apologized to Kendricks, but her mom said that's not enough.

"She played a big role," Thelma Reeves said. "She got nothing but ridicule and was labeled a snitch. Not good enough."

Roughly two weeks before Tampa police arrested Butler and said she had sex with a 16-year-old male student at her home, Middleton Principal Carl C. Green had heard talk of the affair.

"As a concerned parent, I can't believe a person in authority we trust with the care of our children would turn a blind eye and not even investigate these allegations," said Hillsborough County Commissioner Kevin White, whose daughter attends Middleton.

The principal, he said, could have reported the matter to a school resource officer.

Green was out of town Thursday and couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

A school district spokesman said officials need significant evidence of wrongdoing to begin an investigation but acknowledged that other options could have been pursued.

Tampa police arrested Butler on Tuesday after they pulled over the 16-year-old boy driving her Jeep Grand Cherokee erratically on North 22nd Street. During the traffic stop, a friend who was with the teenager hinted to police about a relationship between Butler and the boy, which Butler confirmed when confronted, police said.

Charged with felony lewd and lascivious battery, Butler is suspended with pay until the school board can meet to determine her employment status, officials said. The school board's next meeting will be Nov. 6.

She is free on $7,500 bail. Attempts to reach her and her relatives were unsuccessful Thursday.

Police said the relationship between Butler and the boy lasted about three weeks.

Kendricks didn't report rumors of the sexual relationship to Green directly, school district spokesman Steve Hegarty said. Rather, word of what she was saying at school and to an assistant principal reached Green on Oct. 9.

Green spoke to Butler and the boy individually Oct. 10 and 11, Hegarty said. They denied any relationship.

Butler appeared "very upset" after the discussion and called the teachers union for advice, Hegarty said.

Green decided to suspend Kendricks on Oct. 12 because she continued to talk about an affair, saying she would get the teacher fired, Hegarty said. The school also had concerns about her class work and wanted to meet with a parent or guardian, he said.

This type of suspension is not considered punitive, Hegarty said, and instead forces such a meeting.

The girl returned to school Monday.

School personnel are required to report allegations of sexual misconduct to the district's office of professional standards for investigation "if you have substantial proof," which Green did not have, Hegarty said.

"In retrospect, we don't want to burden them with every rumor, but when it's serious enough, it should be passed on to them so they can investigate further," he said.

Hegarty said he did not know whether Green would apologize to the girl and her family upon his return.

A former substitute teacher, Butler began working full-time at Middleton in August, Hegarty said. She is classified as a special-education teacher but does not work with severely disabled students. She had several classes of 15 to 20 students who follow the regular curriculum but need tutoring, he said.

After the school year began, administrators noticed Butler was having "classroom management issues" in her portable classroom, a common problem for a first-year teacher, Hegarty said. Some of those issues included students who were not in her class dropping by the classroom, he said.

"We were giving her extra supervision to help her with that," Hegarty said.

Kendricks also told the school about what she saw as Butler's preferential treatment toward boys in the classroom.

"She would let the boys get on the computer and watch inappropriate stuff," she said.

Butler has no criminal record in Florida or Maryland, where she used to live, public records show. On her employment application to the school district, she listed only Florida jobs, such as one at a Brandon veterinary clinic.

A database that compares records to locate people shows Butler worked for a month in 2000 as a waitress at Good Guys, a Washington nightclub.

In e-mail, phone calls and in person at Good Guys, club employees would not talk about Butler. Records show that during that time, she lived in Gaithersburg, Md., about 26 miles from Washington.

On Thursday, the Web site for the "MJ Morning Show," a radio program broadcast on WFLZ, 93.3 FM, posted photographs taken several years ago of an exotic dancer it speculated might be Butler. The photos posted on the radio show's site are the same photos that appear with the name "Froggy" on the nightclub's Web site. Butler has two tattoos of frogs, police records show.

If the district knew about an applicant with a background such as this, it is unlikely they would be hired, Hegarty said.

"I think with most principals it would raise an eyebrow, and they would hesitate to hire someone with a background like that," he said.

Butler had a temporary state teaching certificate, Hegarty said. The state Department of Education conducts a Florida Department of Law Enforcement and FBI background check, he said.

The district, as required by its policy, also verified the employment listed on Butler's application. It also checked her educational background.

Hegarty said the district does not conduct an employment background check on jobs an applicant held that are not listed on the application.

Editor Howard Altman and reporter Billy House contributed to this report. Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at vkalfrin@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7800.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT