Friday, May 01, 2009

Only in Naples?

I've been to Naples, Florida ... but I never hooked up or received "sexual acts" with a special ed student while there. I have, however, been known to visit ESPN.com every once in awhile. Ah, but a gentlemen ... I take that back ... a special needs teacher in Naples combined the two in a way that, well, got him fired.

Thomas McCoy, an educational support employee with the district since 1998, was suspended with pay in January pending a hearing examining his actions on a day in December when district officials say he was cruising ESPN.com while two students went behind a bookshelf and one performed a sex act on the other. McCoy, of Lehigh Acres, was supervising four students in an exceptional student classroom at Royal Palm Exceptional Center while the usual teacher was off campus with other students from the classroom.

Another school employee walking past the room, Virginia Newsome, reported that she saw the students through the window as the girl was performing a sex act on the boy. Both students are identified only by their first and last initials in the report.

According to records on the incident, Newsome went into the room to inform McCoy, who was on a computer with his back to the students. The record states that the computer McCoy was using was later analyzed, and records of the computer’s internet activity showed he was visiting the sports news Web site ESPN.com and links associated with the site at the time of the incident.

It's things like this that made me become a sports writer. I don't think there's any plausible way I can be fired for "cruising" on ESPN.com. By the way, what if there was a way to get "sexual acts" while surfing ESPN.com Oh wait, that's called Erin Andrews. Too personal? C'mon, I always gotta find a way to work her into a post.

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