Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
Michael Grayer, suspended from his job at Tarpon Springs High School, has been accused of sexual battery.
By ROBERT FARLEY, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published April 13, 2002
TARPON SPRINGS -- The Pinellas County School Board is scheduled to decide Tuesday whether to fire a Tarpon Springs High School teacher accused of sexual battery on a 17-year-old female student.
Michael Grayer, 29, of Clearwater was suspended with pay after his arrest on Jan. 31.
In a memo to the School Board last week, superintendent Howard Hinesley recommended that Grayer be dismissed or suspended without pay pending the outcome of an administrative hearing.
Grayer, who says he is innocent, has requested a hearing.
Regardless of the outcome of the administrative hearing or the criminal case, Grayer will not return to teach in the school district next year. That's because administrators have decided not to renew his contract, said Jackie Spoto Bircher, an attorney for the school district.
Until the completion of their third year, teachers serve on one-year contracts. The district does not need to show cause to allow a one-year contract to lapse, Spoto Bircher said. As long as the decision is not based on the teacher's race, gender or religion, Spoto Bircher said, "we can do it for any reason we want to."
So the administrative hearing is really over whether Grayer will be paid for two more months, she said. Grayer will lose $150 per day if he is suspended without pay.
So why not just let Grayer's contract expire?
"It's the principle of it," Spoto Bircher said.
Grayer's criminal attorney, Dwight Dudley, called that "extremely unfair."
"It would seem they are jumping the gun by doing that," Dudley said.
Although the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office arrested Grayer in January, the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office is still investigating the case and has not filed a formal charge, known as an information.
"No formal charge has been filed, and we're hoping there won't be," Dudley said. "He categorically, totally and completely denies the accusations against him."
In his memo, Hinesley said that Grayer also "engaged in inappropriate conduct with other students." Spoto Bircher said that relates to inappropriate comments made to female students.
Grayer was hired by the Pinellas County school district in August 2000 and taught last year at Dixie Hollins High School in St. Petersburg, where he also coached the boy's junior varsity basketball team.
Grayer transferred to Tarpon Springs High School this year. He taught social studies in the GOALS program, which stands for Graduation Options -- Alternatives to Leaving School. It is a dropout prevention program for students who have fallen behind. Grayer also coached the boy's varsity basketball team until he resigned 12 games into the season on Jan. 10 for personal reasons.
At a hearing Feb. 8 to consider a motion to reduce Grayer's $50,000 bail, several teachers from Dixie Hollins and Tarpon Springs high schools spoke on his behalf. Several teachers said they knew Grayer well and that he was incapable of doing what he has been accused of.
At that hearing, assistant state attorney Doug Ellis said the sexual battery occurred in Grayer's office after class.
"She indicated it was against her will, without her consent," Ellis said.
"Also, unfortunately, Judge, people who are child molesters often have this kind of support," Ellis said. "These kinds never do it: priests, football (or) soccer coaches, teachers. They always have this kind of support. It's always a person they never suspect. So the fact that these people don't believe it to be in his character doesn't necessarily mean it didn't occur because that's what most people say regarding someone in his situation."
Ellis could not be reached for comment.
At that hearing, Dudley said Grayer "does not quibble with the issues of consent. He says that he did not do this, and it would appear, based on what I have been told anyway, that he has good evidence to show that this did not happen."
Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Brandt C. Downey reduced Grayer's bail to $10,000, which Grayer posted.
-- Robert Farley can be reached at (727) 445-4185 or farley@sptimes.com.
Postal officials are offering up to $25,000 for information leading to the robbers who hijacked a mail truck in Tarpon Springs on April 5. Call postal inspector Andrew Wagner any time at (813) 281-5200.