Sex, Lies, and Videotape - Oh and Drugs!

When I first started working at Lee Middle School in Orlando, Florida, numerous teachers approached me and explained that I would be receiving the "aide from hell!" They also warned me not to bother to report him since I would be retaliated against if I didn't observe the unwritten rule - teachers have no rights in this school. Dr. Clem, an assistant principal explained that the aide I would receive had behavior problems the previous school year, which she had been unsuccessful in correcting. (He ignored her and continued his behaviors.) She further explained that I would have to "structure" him, even though no one had been able to accomplish that task.

During the school year, adults observed Sketers (my aide) to be incoherent and one wrote that he seemed "out of it." Sketers was immature and the students' behavior problems paled in comparison to his in spite of the fact that I taught a self contained special education class. Besides being unhelpful in general, virtually illiterate including unable to perform basic math and writing skills, his messages to children were inappropriate. They included excessive marijuana talks (his favorite topic), constant derogatory remarks concerning women, and directions to male students on how to take advantage of and rape girls. The school resource officer (SRO) removed marijuana from Sketers' desk after a student discovered an overwhelmingly strong pot smell in my classroom. The SRO asked me if Sketers ever spoke of pot in the classroom and I answered with a resounding, "YES!!!" which I followed with numerous examples. I told Mr. Pylant, principal, that I didn’t think Sketers should be around women, children, and I certainly did not want him near me.

Rather than wonder why there could have been marijuana in Sketers' desk, or attempt to get more information, Mr. Pylant yelled at me for reporting the incident. Mr. Pylant's face became red, he clenched his fists, and called me "unprofessional" for making negative statements about Sketers. His directions to me were that I was to not tell anyone or continue to make comments concerning Sketers because he was tired of it. Some of the previous claims that I had made about Sketers had included that he had escorted a student to a school dance. (I would later find out he smoked marijuana in the car while driving her home). Nevertheless, the administration congratulated Sketers on his job performance and harassed and humiliated me on a daily basis, the extent of which is almost unbelievable and will soon be available in a detailed version of my story.

At one point, Sketers displayed a plastic badge to students and school employees stating that he was an undercover agent and psychological super sleuth fighting the war on drugs. According to him, he would use his psychological talents and tell students that drugs are cool to get them on his side. Then he'd allegedly later tell them the truth about them. He promoted "crack heads" and boasted that his best friend smokes pot like a chimney. He proudly advertised that pot could be purchased through the drive-thru at McDonalds, where he also worked. Also, during my teacher evaluation, while sitting directly in front of the principal, Sketers made animal noises, which included barking, and the principal just sat there and did nothing.

Sketers did not work alone to make my life miserable; he had two sidekicks. All three could often be found hanging out in Mr. Oliver's officer, another assistant principal. Doug (name changed), the worst behaved student in the school, was rewarded for making accusations about me. The rewards included not having to come to my class ever and still passing although due to lack of completing assignments, he couldn't have passed. Doug was often provided breakfast from McDonalds. I was not allowed to discipline Doug and neither would the administration. In fact, his reward for harassing a handicapped and wheelchair bound girl (which should have been expulsion considering what he did to her) was his own private school bus complete with personal bus monitor and driver to escort him to and from school. Why did administration give a child such as him so many perks? The perks were even more odd considering the student never had any adult from his household show up to meetings/conferences, on his behalf.

Last but not least, Ms. Bennett was another aide in the school who was often vocal in praising Doug and Sketers as "honorable" individuals. (She'd be hard pressed to find others to agree with her). Ms. Bennett was allowed to "counsel" students because it was a hobby she enjoyed, although counseling in this state requires a license. Illegal actions never seemed to get in the way of activities in this school. Ms. Bennett claimed she had a graduate degree in counseling although she worked in a job typically reserved for individuals with only a high school diploma. (Sketers dropped out of high school and claimed he graduated high school from Disney World, which is reflected on his job application.) Ms. Bennett's idea of counseling students was to have black students call me racist. After they admitted doing something wrong and have witnesses concur that they did it, she convinced them that they were innocent and that I was picking on them. Ms. Bennett was right that I didn't like her. I did not respect her, and it was due to her personality and anti-social behaviors, absolutely nothing to do with her race.

She tried to control my classroom in spite of the fact that her job was in another class, and would often come over to try to tell me how to do things. Mr. Oliver and others caught her in lies concerning me yet she was encouraged to continue harassing me. My favorite example of how absurd her behavior was: she would stare at me for extended lengths of time; she proudly shared with others that it was her attempt to place her voo doo evil spells on me. The staring was meant to lock in the spell she had concocted.

I cannot even begin to describe the extent of harassment I received from those three on a daily basis. Interestingly, Sketers, Ms. Bennett, and Doug all knew what the administration would do to me next. I knew because of little comments they would make. This benefited me because it helped their plans backfire, but not without a great cost to my sense of well-being). The rumors and accusations those three started about me spread like wildfire. Also, legal documents (that were supposedly stolen) were planted among my belongings (or should I say mysteriously appeared?), which my attorney believed were a plan to have me arrested for possessing them, even though I had never seen them before.

After I no longer worked at the school, I met an attorney who was fired from his job at DCF (department of children and family services - the state's child protective agency). It seemed a common theme was that if you work for an institution that 'promotes' children and you report abuse, you'll be harassed/humiliated plus lots of extra surprises will be thrown your way in an attempt to ruin your life. He worked on my case for approximately one year free of charge, verified my story, and also helped discover that Sketers was given extra money per week via paychecks which violated the district's policies. (The principal would have broken district policy by allowing timesheet fraud and possibly violating a state law). This could all be verified on the district's own documents. Yet, we were unable to get anyone to do anything about it.

I consulted a child advocate that specializes in child predators and he explained to me that the police avoid investigating child predators and he gave me a list of excuses the police would make to get out of it. All of these excuses were utilized in my case, although he had never worked with that police department before. It seems that most people never have an experience to approach the police asking them to investigate child predators, to realize that the police won't do it . (If you know of any agency that will, please let me know!) To them, I volunteer copies of my evidence and invite you to try. I sent copies of documents, photos, and audiotapes via certified mail to Orange County Public Schools describing the drugs/sex generated by Sketers, yet Sketers still remained employed by the district (and is possibly still there).

I reported this although I had been warned that the district wouldn't care about Sketers' criminal behavior; I wanted to make sure they could never claim they didn't know. A lawyer, political activist, and police officer requested that I back off from collecting further evidence on this situation since I was being stalked by Sketers and others and they believed it was only a matter of time before I might be murdered since drug dealing is a dangerous game.

When I contacted the media, the Orlando Sentinel reporter for education, Lori Horwitz, kept cutting me off. She explained that if this were really a story, the school district would tell her about it and she could then report it. (Why wasn't she aware that the only way they would reveal their misdeeds was by the coercion of the press as in the case of the Catholic Church, Enron and World.com?) The union refused to help me and gave me the run around, not to mention they lied to me. OUR CONTRACT WAS A SERIES OF INTENTIONAL LOOPHOLES FOR THE DISTRICT. DCF (state's child protective agency) cannot enter a public school to investigate a claim of child abuse concerning a school employee UNLESS they are INVITED in by the district administration, according to alleged policy. That leaves the school board to investigate. So I mailed them all certified letters detailing this criminal activity, and still nothing. I have documentation to prove this also.

Through the attorney, I met others all over Florida like myself, who literally have mountains of evidence compiled concerning child abuse which include: child pornography; a principal having sex with students; teachers having sex with students; a hospital filing a false child abuse claim on purpose; cover-ups concerning child abuse; a school employee doing drugs with students; and more. All of us combined have met with countless lawyers, news reporters, politicians, police, etc. etc. etc We've all found that the media won't print our stories, lawyers won't assist (except for the rare one I happened to meet and he couldn't get anywhere), judges lie and make illegal rulings, and we've all seen the abuse continue.

I have proof of a teacher aide having sex with students, doing drugs with students, and in addition to audio tapes, I have a telling video tape. But like the other NAPTA teachers, I have been disposed of so business as usual can go on. I sure hope it won’t take thirty years to believe us, as in the case of the abusive priests. I only lost my career and my sanity for a while. Our kids stand to lose a lot more. I beg of you to stop allowing the propaganda that creates obstacles between parents and students to keep you from finding out the truth about our schools so we can force accountability on them and protect our children.

Disillusioned teacher from Florida

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