Two Broward County high school teachers who were caught in a private sex club can return to work but not in the classroom.
The Associated Press says Kenneth Springer and Tonya Whyte can work other jobs in the district until an administrative judge decides whether they acted immorally. Springer and Whyte will earn their full teachers' salaries for up to nine months.
The school board vote came two weeks after they voted overwhelmingly to suspend Springer and Whyte without pay. A public backlash against that vote prompted the reconsideration, the AP says.
Neither Springer, a teacher at South Broward High School, nor Whyte, a teacher at Deerfield Beach High School, were at Tuesday's meeting. They were arrested with 19 others in January when a now-defunct private swinger's club in Pompano Beach was raided.
The two teachers have maintained they did nothing illegal or deserving discipline, says the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. The paper says Springer told Broward County sheriff's deputies the club was private and called for a $100 membership fee.
Springer was allegedly performing oral sex on his wife at the club when the raid occurred, with Whyte, who was there with a male friend, allegedly being fondled below the waist. Both teachers had been charged with lewd and lascivious conduct, but the charges against Springer were later dropped. Whyte pleaded not guilty; her case has been pending since February, according to the Sun-Sentinel.
Neither of the teachers have commented so far since Tuesday night's vote. The school district administration is pushing to fire the two.
School board members voiced concerns over acting against Springer and Whyte before any criminal case was finished or after a charge has been dropped. Some members said they believed the board should never have even touched the case, pointing out that no child was involved, nor did the incident occur on school property.
The case and the Tuesday vote attracted the attention of the national media, but the AP says an expected hot discussion of morality and the teachers' individual cases never came up. District residents who attended the meeting spoke overwhelmingly in favor of dropping the suspension proceedings against Springer and Whyte, with one saying she didn't believe they had any business in teachers' private lives.
