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Suspension Looms For Pinellas Teacher Over Porn

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By STEPHEN THOMPSON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 22, 2008

Updated: 02/21/2008 10:23 pm

ST. PETERSBURG - A Lakewood High School teacher has agreed to a seven-day suspension after it was discovered he had downloaded pornography on his school-issued laptop computer, according to Pinellas County School Board documents.

Derrick Smith admitted to having downloaded the porn, the documents state, and he reached an agreement with the school system in which he would be suspended for seven days.

Superintendent of Schools Clayton Wilcox is expected to be asked to accept the agreement at a school board meeting Feb. 26.

School district supervisors learned Smith had downloaded the pornography while they were looking for a computer virus that had infected the school district's network, the documents state.

The virus was tracked to Smith's laptop, the documents state, and it was attempting to query the entire Pinellas network in search of shared files. Technology specialists suspect Smith accidentally downloaded the virus from movie files he had been viewing, the documents state.

Smith has been a teacher at Lakewood High since August 2006 and has no record of disciplinary actions, documents state.

Smith said he had viewed and downloaded pornography at his home but never permitted students to use his computer.

In addition to the seven-day suspension, Smith agreed to "Ethics in Education" training, the documents state. The seven-day suspension will cost him $1,329.30.

Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336 or spthompson@tampatrib.com.

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