FL charter principal smokes pot with students, her shirt unbuttoned....secretary fired when she

reports the principal.

This principal's behavior makes two charter school systems in Florida look bad. She had recently left one with a questionable reputation.

Crossposted in General Discussion

From the Courthouse News Service:

Secretary Says Firing Was Retaliation

Mavericks school is a charter high school which receives public money.

PALM SPRINGS, Fla. (CN) - A Florida high school secretary claims in a lawsuit that she was fired for reporting a principal who was bringing marijuana to school and fraternizing with students.
In a complaint filed in Palm Beach County on June 1, Jackelin Cruz claims she was fired from her job with Mavericks High School in retaliation for telling police about a weed stash that she spotted inside Principal Krista Morton's purse.
Cruz says she found out about Morton's marijuana use after entering a staff bathroom and discovering the principal's purse on the floor. She says she picked it up to return it, and immediately detected a "strong odor of marijuana." Upon further examination, she says, she saw "a bag of marijuana and a thick looking cigarette."
She claims she "went straight to an on-duty Palm Springs police officer," but no charges were filed against Principal Morton.
A few days later, Cruz was called into a meeting, and Morton allegedly asked her to resign. Cruz refused, so Morton fired her on the spot, the complaint says.

A Florida charter school principal was caught last week in the back seat of her car with one of her students, according to police, and subsequently arrested. But Krista Morton, 45, was not taken into custody for being with the the student, who was 18, but for possession of marijuana. But these improper acts aren't the principal's first brushes with controversy. That happened at another Florida high school where she was also principal.

Gulf Live reported May 11 that Krista Morton's arrest for marijuana possession, not to mention the impropriety of being caught with a student with an illegal substance and presenting the perception of possible sexual activity, will only add to a resume burdened with controversy. Prior to signing on at Mavericks High School in Palm Springs, she was head administrator for Milburn Academy in Bradenton, Florida. A charter school, it was not provided a renewal of its charter due to several institutional failures.

....According to WFLA, police were called to the scene when someone reported "people in the back seat engaged in some sort of sexual activity or being attacked.” North Palm Beach Police said that a sergeant knocked on the car door. He quickly noticed that Morton had wings tattooed on her lower back prior to her opening the door and immediately saying, “We're just friends." The sergeant also noticed Morton's shirt was unbuttoned, leaving her shoulders and part of her chest exposed.

Then she altered her story to say she didn't know her fellow back seat occupier, had been "lonely" and had picked him up just to get to know him. “She continued to tell me that she had just met him, that she was lonely, she had just picked him up down the street and brought him here to get to know him,” the police officer said.

NAPLES, Fla. - Seven times since 2006, Richard Milburn Academy of Florida has failed at running a charter school.

In Lee County, two RMA schools closed after administrators manipulated student grades. In the Tampa Bay-area, two RMA schools shut down due to poor academic performance. In Manatee County, one RMA school was shuttered after half of the graduating class received diplomas without earning enough credits.

Yet, in Florida’s charter school system, RMA of Florida is allowed to continue operating and opening new campuses. Many of the same people responsible for the seven failures are now running two charter schools near Daytona Beach, receiving about $2.8 million in taxpayer money last school year.

...That RMA still does business in Florida is but one example of cracks in Florida’s charter system, a world in which critics say too many ill-prepared and ill-intentioned operators are failing the state’s students and taxpayers.