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District rebukes teacher twice

The Powell Middle School instructor is suspended a day after being reprimanded over photos taken of students and a colleague.

By ABHI RAGHUNATHAN
Published March 10, 2005

BROOKSVILLE - A Powell Middle School teacher was suspended after officials learned he inappropriately photographed female students, as well as a colleague's clothed chest, and stored the pictures on his personal digital assistant.

After finishing their investigation, district officials had reinstated Gregory Cross, 57, to his job as a social studies teacher at Powell Middle School on Feb. 8. They had issued him a letter of reprimand, asked him to apologize to the co-worker he photographed at a staff meeting and instructed him to attend ethics training.

But the very next day, Cross was suspended again while district officials began investigating another matter that has not yet been made public. Cross, a Floral City resident, is now suspended without pay. He declined to comment.

Powell Middle School officials first began investigating Cross in January after an anonymous phone call to the guidance counselor's office. Cross was accused of photographing the backs of students for "dress code violations" and using the pictures in a slide show that he displayed in class and during an open house. Cross was also accused of placing the pictures on a screen saver, according to a district file.

According to district records, Cross used his PDA to both take the pictures and store them. While investigating the accusation that Cross photographed students, district director of Labor Relations and Professional Standards Barbara Kidder learned that he had also photographed a colleague's chest with his PDA at a staff meeting.

One of Cross' colleagues wrote in a statement that he was showing the pictures he took of students at a staff meeting and explained that he used his PDA to document "evidence of Dress Code Violations."

The colleague wrote that she told Cross that "he had no right to take their pictures without parental permission." But she wrote that Cross felt it was appropriate because there were cameras around the school that filmed students.

Later during the meeting, the colleague wrote, Cross took a photo of a staff member's "chest/breast and he proceeded to show it to her." Although that Powell staffer was "well covered," she felt uncomfortable and put on a sweater afterward.

"I was shocked and didn't know what to say," wrote the colleague whom Cross had photographed. She later told district officials that she thought Cross was a good teacher and she "wanted to move on."

Before returning to work in Hernando schools in 2000, Cross had worked as a social studies teacher at Inverness Middle School from 1996 to 1999. On his Hernando job application, he wrote that he was laid off in Citrus for budget reasons.

In August 2000, Cross began working at Powell as a dropout prevention teacher and became a social studies teacher in 2001. He was hired at Powell after not being reappointed at Parrott Middle, where he was first hired in March 2000.

Cross had previously worked in Hernando and Citrus as a substitute and a full-time teacher. In 1996, he was nominated for teacher of the year at Hernando's Central High School, where he taught history, according to his resume.

When Cross applied for a job in Hernando in 1999, his co-workers in Citrus filled out evaluations that gave him mostly "Good" or "Average" ratings in various categories.

But on all three Citrus evaluation forms, Cross' references did not answer one question: "Would you recommend/rehire this person for employment as a teacher?"

Abhi Raghunathan can be reached at araghunathan@sptimes.com or 352 848-1431.

[Last modified March 10, 2005, 01:14:16]