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2 Students Plan To Sue School District Over Handling Of Sex Scandal

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By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 26, 2007

Updated: 10/26/2007 04:39 pm

Video: Student Speaks | Previous Coverage

TAMPA - Two Middleton High School students, one described having had a sexual relationship with a teacher and the other, who told the principal about the affair, have hired an attorney and filed an intent to sue the school district.

Both are victims, said Darryl Rouson, a St. Petersburg lawyer who hand delivered the letters to the school board offices Friday afternoon. The 16-year-old boy was the victim of a sexual assault at the hands of a 33-year-old female teacher, Rouson said and 15-year-old girl who told the principal about the romance, was victimized by the school when she was suspended amid accusations she was spreading vile rumors.

Christina Lin Butler

In the letter addressed to Superintendent MaryEllen Elia, Rouson wrote that the learning-disabled male student and his mother had been in contact with his office in the wake of the Tuesday arrest of the teacher, and that he intends to sue the district over "permanent personal bodily injuries and psychological injuries" done to the teen. The letter charges the school with being negligent in its responsibility to the student, whose name is not being published because of the nature of the allegations.

Rouson hand delivered the letters to the school board's office in downtown Tampa this afternoon. The Tribune is not naming the boy because there is an investigation that he is a victim of a sex crime.

The threatened lawsuit surrounds the arrest Tuesday night of Christina Lin Butler, 33, a teacher at Middleton High School accused of having a three-week sexual relationship with the 16-year-old student.

The letter said Butler made romantic advances that ended up in a sexual relationship with the "emotionally challenged" youth and that the principal at the school had learned of the relationship from his other client, but dismissed the affair as a rumor.

Rouson said Principal Carl Green should have turned the matter over to the district's office of professional standards for an investigation and not ended it on his own, labeling the allegations as unfounded.

"In fact," the letter said, "it is outrageous that no formal report was ever made by the school officials to the school district."

A day after Butler was arrested, the student went to school, and was told to go home, the letter said.

The letter also seeks unspecified compensation for medical expenses "for the care and treatment" of the teen.

Rouson's second letter said he represents Shatavia Kendricks, the 15-year-old girl who told Green of the affair and was suspended after she stepped forward.

"My client witnessed inappropriate conduct between her teacher, Christina Butler, and another student," Rouson wrote. "Ms. Kendricks reported the inappropriate conduct to school personnel including an assistant principal. Her actions were proper and just in telling the truth about what she observed. However, school officials suspended her for spreading rumors and gossiping.

"They treated her comments as false and unworthy of professional attention."

The letter said Kendricks' mother had "taught her that it is not 'snitching' to tell the truth about wrongdoing, yet she was punished for doing just that. This is a horrible message for other young children."

Meanwhile, administrators are trying to get back to normal at the school on North 22nd Street, south of Hillsborough Avenue.

Homecoming is tonight and that was the focus at the East Tampa campus.

There was little talk about the female teacher suspended after her arrest on charges she had sex with a male student. It was business as usual, said Steve Hegarty, spokesman for the Hillsborough County School District.

"I think the adults are more affected by this stuff than the kids are," he said after managing two days of damage control over the teacher's arrest. "The kids are doing their thing. They're more excited about homecoming than the news truck across the street."

The arrest Tuesday had people asking questions about decisions made by Green.

It was a cauldron of scandal at the school, and it boiled away as quickly as it started, Hegarty said. But that was before the letters of intent were delivered to the school board office.

"I talked to the principal today," Hegarty said late Friday morning. "I asked him if he was getting a lot of calls from parents, and he said no, not at all."

Green also told Hegarty he had not gotten a call from Hillsborough County Commissioner Kevin White, whose daughter attends Middleton High. Thursday, White publicly criticized the principal's handling of the incident.

"They've got homecoming tonight," Hegarty said. "They're taking care of that business."

Green could not be reached for comment. Hegarty said Green likely would not be disciplined over his handling of the incident because there appears to be no violation of school district policy.

But, Hegarty said, there do appear to have been some options Green could have and probably should have – chosen.

When he heard the rumor, Green questioned the teacher and the male student, and both said they had not had a relationship. Green then suspended Kendricks for spreading a rumor.

Green "investigated because of the seriousness of the allegation," Hegarty said. In retrospect, the principal could have turned it over to the district's professional standards investigators, but he was not required to do that, especially with unsubstantiated accusations.

"He believed at the time that what he had on his hands were unsubstantiated rumors," Hegarty said. "No other kids were talking about this, and the people involved were denying it."

Green initially thanked the whistleblower for coming forward, but he thought she might have had a vendetta against the teacher because of issues in her classroom, Hegarty said.

Butler was arrested this week after the male student involved in the case was stopped by police Tuesday night while driving her Jeep Grand Cherokee.

Tampa police said that Butler, called to the scene of the traffic stop, told them they had sex at her home several times over a three-week period.

She has been charged with lewd and lascivious battery. The school district suspended her with pay until the school board can meet to determine her employment status. The next school board meeting is Nov. 6.

She was released from jail after posting $7,500 bail and could not be reached for comment.

A former substitute teacher, Butler began working full-time at Middleton in August. She is a 2006 graduate of the University of Tampa, Hegarty said. Butler is classified as a special-education teacher but does not work with severely disabled students.

Butler has no criminal record in Florida or Maryland, public records show. On her employment application to the school district, she listed only Florida jobs, and they have all checked out, Hegarty said.

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.

News Channel 8 reporter Krista Klaus and Tribune reporter Ray Reyes contributed to this report. Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760 or at kmorelli@tampatrib.com.

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