PE teacher takes bribes from kids not wanting to go to gym class

buttmunch · February 17th, 2006, 05:38 AM

Quote:

(AP) A middle school gym teacher let children sit out his class if they paid him $1 a day, collecting perhaps thousands of dollars, officials said Thursday.

Terence Braxton, 28, took the payoffs between September and December, resigning after the principal learned of the scheme from a parent, authorities said.

Braxton, of Atmore, Alabama, turned himself in early Thursday at a Pensacola jail on bribery charges and was released on his own recognizance, Escambia County sheriff's Sgt. Mike Ward said.

The charges accuse Braxton of taking about $230 from six students, but Ward said the teacher's take from the 250 sixth-to-eighth grad boys and girls was probably much greater.

"It's not bad if you can make an extra $100 a day tax free," said Ronnie Arnold, spokesman for the Escambia County School District.

Arnold said Ward Middle School principal Nancy Gindl-Perry learned of the scheme from a parent and began her own investigation in December. She then contacted authorities and placed Braxton on administrative leave. Braxton resigned before the school board was scheduled to vote to fire him at a January meeting.

District officials have reported the allegations to the Florida Department of Education Professional Practices Commission, which could revoke Braxton's teaching certificate if he's found guilty of the charges.

cbsnews.com

I don't know, a buck a day seems like a pretty fair price to ditch PE once in awhile...especially if you've got your period.

A*O · February 17th, 2006, 06:05 AM

ha! the lezzie sports teachers at my all-girl HS used to keep a diary of who had their 'period' so we could not try that one more than once.

buttmunch · February 17th, 2006, 06:11 AM

Seriously? That is fucked up! I actually got in trouble in school for making up a lively song about our lesbian teacher. I had the whole class singing it and mad eher cry. It seemed funny then but now, well, I'm a wee bit ashamed.

A*O · February 17th, 2006, 06:23 AM

Seriously. Everyone used to try to get off games/gym (these were the days when we had such things timetabled into every day at school) by saying they had their period. So what?? If you wear a Tampax you can go skydiving for fucks sake. So the teachers made a calendar and it quickly became obvious who was either trying it on or had a serious gynae problem. Ahhh, Miss Doyle, Irish hockey (field) queen, netball nazi and plumber (she always needed to check out a 'leaking tap' when the grade 12's were in the showers). Happy days.

buttmunch · February 17th, 2006, 06:59 AM

Shower time was always a bitch. Our teacher (the one I made cry) used to stand outside the showers and check to make sure we were wet. If we weren't, back in we went. We got around it by just dipping our shoulders into the water but I've always wondered what the fuck that was all about. If we wanted to be smelly, what did they care? And did they ever try showering, washing their hair, reapplying their makeup, drying their hair and getting their clothes just right in 10-12 minutes? All of that was wildly important at 15 or 16. God, schools really were fucked up sometimes. Although now that there isn't much PE these days, I think there should be a place for it.

A*O · February 17th, 2006, 07:02 AM

MAKEUP AT SCHOOL?!?!?!? No way in my day.

buttmunch · February 17th, 2006, 07:17 AM

You weren't allowed to wear makeup at school? What sort of school did you attend?

Tenaj · February 17th, 2006, 07:24 AM

We weren't allowed to wear make up but still did. I remember getting told off for clear nail polish. Also there was a time I was told to go and wipe my makeup off, I had bad skin at the time and I felt like I was being tortured, "How dare you make me remove my foundation?!!!!!!!! It really isn't 3 inches thick, honest!!"

buttmunch · February 17th, 2006, 07:55 AM

What sort of schools were these? Religious?

Tenaj · February 17th, 2006, 07:59 AM

Nope, mine was a regular comprehensive, my Nan wanted me to go to a catholic school, when I didn't she said I'd go to hell but thats a whole different story.

Everyone wore makeup but you had to be careful not to make it two obvious or you had to take it off, I guess I wasn't the expert foundation blender at 15!

buttmunch · February 17th, 2006, 08:03 AM

What was the reason for no makeup? Were you going to 'lure' the helpless boys into your lair or something.

Tenaj · February 17th, 2006, 08:16 AM

You may be on to something there, not that I was like that of course!

There were all sorts of rules. Skirts to be knee length (everyone rolled them up though), Earrings had to be SMALL studs and only one in each ear, no makeup of anykind, no nail polish. At one point some people decided that the 'in' way to wear your tie was to use the thin end at the top (if that makes sense) and also wear it short. That got banned too. I guess it boiled down to the rule that everyone had to look the same. We all wore uniforms...

Hang on, do American schoolchildren wear Uniforms? now I remember doing an American Exchange and none of the American kids wore a uniform.

buttmunch · February 17th, 2006, 08:28 AM

Nope. American kids generally don't. There's talk here and there about it and I suppose a few schools do, but they're the exception, not the rule.

I am a bit gobsmacked that they had all these rules at your school! Talk about shoving conformity down your throat.

Tenaj · February 17th, 2006, 08:35 AM

Yeah I guess they wanted us all to turn out like robots but I think that just made people rebel against it all the more. If we were all left to be able to wear what we wanted then there wouldn't have been such a fuss about who's skirt was a little shorter or who had managed to sneak in with polish.

Anyway it's always been that way here and a lot of people like the tradition.

MrsDark · February 17th, 2006, 08:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tenaj

You may be on to something there, not that I was like that of course!

There were all sorts of rules. Skirts to be knee length (everyone rolled them up though), Earrings had to be SMALL studs and only one in each ear, no makeup of anykind, no nail polish. At one point some people decided that the 'in' way to wear your tie was to use the thin end at the top (if that makes sense) and also wear it short. That got banned too. I guess it boiled down to the rule that everyone had to look the same. We all wore uniforms...

Hang on, do American schoolchildren wear Uniforms? now I remember doing an American Exchange and none of the American kids wore a uniform.

I did. But I went to a private Catholic school. Actually, more and more American schools are turning to uniforms because it's actually cheaper for the lower income families. In the nearby city where I'm from almost all the city schools wear uniforms now. It eliminated all the gang bullshit like people getting stabbed for wearing certain colors or getting robbed for their expensive tennis shoes or Starter jackets.

BTW I was famous in HS for having got away with more uniform violations than just about anyone else! But I do remember getting sent to the restroom to wash off purple eyeshadow in the 8th grade!

Oh yeah, about that gym teacher....where the fuck were these type gym teachers when I was in the 9th grade dammit! I hated gym then. Definitely would have slipped them a few $$ to get out of it! It would have made all the difference in the world if it was at the end of the day where I was going home. No way did we have enough time to make ourselves presentable before the next class! Not to mention I was the littlest one in a class full of amazons, so unless we were doing something like just running laps, I would literally get trounced upon (playing sports).