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Ex-teacher pleads guilty in sex case
By ALICIA CALDWELL, Times Staff Writer LARGO -- For more than two years, the case had been ripping up their family. That's why, a prosecutor said, the teenage girl and her parents agreed to a plea deal Monday that will have the girl's former Gibbs High School teacher -- and illicit lover -- serve five years in prison and 10 years' probation. Had the case gone to trial, Edward Wylie, 43, a former social studies and history teacher, could have gotten 30 years in prison. "The victim's family wanted to have some closure on the case and this was the fastest way for them to get some closure," said Scott Rosenwasser, the Pinellas assistant state attorney handling the case. "They were in complete agreement with the disposition." The girl and her family, whose names are being withheld because of the nature of the crimes, declined to comment. Wylie said little during the brief proceeding, though he sniffed and teared up as he signed forms, agreeing to plead guilty to two counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor. The agreed-upon probation has many conditions, including mandatory sex offender treatment, provisions that he not work with minor children and a 10 p.m. curfew. The plea deal Monday is a milestone in what has been an embarrassing case for the Pinellas County school system. Not only did the girl, then 16, complain to school officials in 1999 that Wylie was "stalking" her, he had similar problems in the 1980s in other, smaller Florida school systems. Putnam County forced Wylie to resign a teaching position in 1984 after he was accused of having a relationship with a 16-year-old student he later married. He was hired by Polk County in the late 1980s, but was forced to resign after he was accused of getting a 17-year-old student drunk and pregnant. Despite having his teaching certificate permanently revoked in 1988, he managed to get a new certificate from the state, a mistake chalked up to a clerical error. With the certificate and a new wife, this one a Pinellas teacher who prosecutors say helped him get access to the school system, he was hired in Pinellas in 1994. Somehow, Wylie got a positive reference from the Polk school district, which told Pinellas it would rehire Wylie if given a chance. After being hired in Pinellas, Wylie worked at Hamilton Disston School but later transferred to Gibbs, where he met the girl he would later seduce. She admitted she had a crush on him. But she told school officials that she was upset after seeing him drive by her house four times. And he rubbed her shoulders and gave her a personal note. The Pinellas case came to light in July 1999. One of Wylie's sons told a counselor that his father and a female high school student had been spending time in Wylie's bedroom with the door closed. The counselor reported the incident to state authorities. At first, the girl denied having sex with Wylie. Ron Meyer, a Tallahassee lawyer representing the girl in civil actions against the state and two school districts, said Wylie had convinced her that she had to protect him. "Basically, he first emotionally seduced her to where she truly believed she was special and they had a future together," Meyer said. "He alienated her from her family, and that's part of the psychological damage he inflicted on her." In July 2000, the Gibbs student told investigators that she and Wylie had engaged in sexual relations, and he was arrested shortly thereafter. Since the arrest, Meyer said, the girl has been making amends with her parents and coming to understand what happened. On Monday, she spent much of the two hours waiting for the case to be called, wrapped in the protective arm of her mother. "I think the family is going to recover," Meyer said. "But (Wylie) drove a wedge between them."
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