Teacher quits after buying student 'morning after' pill

A Plant City High School teacher has resigned after acknowledging she bought a "morning after pill" for a student and had inappropriate Facebook conversations with the student's boyfriend.

Ginger Parks, a 17-year teaching veteran, resigned her job Sept. 22, less than a week after she was confronted with the allegations. She faced firing if she didn't quit, Hillsborough County School District records show.

Parks, who taught English, also was the school's cheerleading coach. She at first denied any misconduct, the district reported, but changed her story when district investigator Andrew J. Rouleau told Parks he had 40 pages of printouts of her Facebook conversations furnished by the boy's father.

According to Rouleau's report contained in district records, Parks acknowledged:

* Furnishing an emergency contraceptive, often called the morning after pill, to a boy, who gave it to his girlfriend after they had unprotected sex following the October 2009 homecoming dance. The contraceptive is available without a prescription to adults, the report said.

* Having Facebook conversations with the boy that were laced with four-letter words and other inappropriate dialogue. In one she wrote that "a teenaged boy's sex drive doesn't come close to mine." In another she wrote she thinks about having sex with everyone she sees.

* Attempting to meet a student - the report isn't clear if it is one of the students in the contraceptive pill incident -- at Alderman's Ford Park in rural East Hillsborough County.

* Changing a grade as a "favor."

Parks could not be reached Friday for comment.

"It's completely inappropriate," said Linda Cobbe, spokeswoman for the school district. "A teacher should never provide any student with any kind of medication that is not provided by the student's parents to the school."

Cobbe also criticized the Facebook comments: "It seemed like too close of a relationship. A teacher and a student should never have that type of conversation, ever."

The girl's mother brought the allegations to the school district's attention in September after her daughter complained Parks used profanity toward her during a chance encounter at a Plant City restaurant, the report states. Parks asked the girl if she had been spreading rumors about the teacher, it says.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office and Hillsborough County State Attorney's Office declined to prosecute for lack of evidence of a crime, the school district's report said.

The students' names were removed from a copy of the report provided to TBO.com.