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Ex-Dowdell Teacher Gets Probation For Assaults On Students

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 8, 2009

TAMPA - A former Dowdell Middle School teacher was sentenced this morning to six months probation for assaulting two students, slamming one of the students' hands in a door.

Mary K. Dwyer, 55, said nothing before her sentencing after her attorney advised her not to speak because of pending civil litigation.

Judge John Conrad told Dwyer he will allow her to end her probation after three months if she is successful in completing the requirements. And he said he would withhold adjudication of guilt.

Sheila Peck, whose son, Patrick Jones, 15, had his hand slammed in a door, said she was "very angry" about the sentence and had wanted jail time for the former teacher. "I think it's ridiculous, totally ridiculous," she said. She said her son would be punished much more harshly if he did the same thing to the teacher.

Defense attorney Michael C. McGinn told the judge Dwyer has already been punished severely. "She lost her job over this," he said. "She's had quite a bit of punishment." He said she almost lost her house because of the loss of income.

Conrad said he believed the May 9 assaults were the result of what "might have been an accumulation of factors, not just what happened that day."

School district spokeswoman Linda Cobbe, who was not in court, said Dwyer's contract was not renewed in July after her teaching certification lapsed. She also was not eligible to be rehired because of the investigation over the assaults, which Cobbe said happened in a multipurpose room.

According to Cobbe, Jones was there to photograph something for the school yearbook.

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