RIVERVIEW - The former president of Sessums Elementary School PTA faces a grand theft charge, accused of defrauding the new association out of almost $13,000.
During the past school year, $12,735 was unaccounted, the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office said, the money coming from T-shirt, snow-cone and book sales and school auctions.
Karen Gorman, 54, of Riverview, said it's a misunderstanding.
Gorman, who was the school's PTA president during the 2003-2004 school year, turned herself in at the Orient Road Jail Monday and was charged with grand theft and scheme to defraud, sheriff's officials said.
The money was paid to Gorman by fraudulent billing and check forgery, the office said.
"The investigation revealed the suspect may have used a portion of the missing funds for school items, but the larger portion was used for personal gain," the sheriff's office said Tuesday in a statement.
"Totally incorrect," Gorman said. "They are really blowing it all out of proportion."
She said all the money was spent on the children and none of it was for personal use.
Gorman would not say what she used the money for, adding only that she was talking to an attorney and couldn't say more.
Gorman was president of the PTA last year, the school's first. She also was a cafeteria aide at the school, but resigned both positions in April. She was released from jail Monday on $4,000 bail.
Gorman has no Florida criminal record. She has filed for bankruptcy at least three times.
Mark Hart, school district spokesman, said Gorman passed all national and local background checks before the school employed her as a part-time lunchroom aide. He added that bankruptcies would not be something the district would check.
"That's a very sizable amount of money to raise the first year," Hart said. "There's a lot of hard work done by volunteers to raise money and it's a real setback for them when something like this happens."
Times researcher Cathy Wos and reporter Melanie Ave contributed to this report.
