TORONTO – Teaching students to twerk and participating in a lap dance at a soccer team party was a little outside the curriculum for Physical Education and Health teacher Courtney Spruill—but it only landed her a 15-day suspension.
The teacher and soccer coach, known to students as Coach Perry, works at Florida’s Kernan Middle School, and attended an end-of-year soccer party at the home of a student in April, according to WTEV.
A student told another coach in May that Spruill was drunk at the party and drove home with a student in the car, prompting parent outrage and an investigation into the incident, reported WTEV. A cellphone video taken of Spruill receiving a lap dance from a student was reportedly collected as part of the investigation.
The mother who owned the house where the party took place told investigators Spruill gave vodka as a house warming gift, but drank pop at the party, according to the Florida Times-Union.
The investigation found evidence to support allegations of “the gross exercise of poor judgement” by Spruill, said documents cited by the Florida Times-Union.
On July 1, the Duval County School board voted to suspend her without pay for 15 days, which Duval County school Superintendent Dr. Nikolai Vitti told WTEV was an appropriate time frame.
“Considering all of those circumstances, it wasn’t as if the party took place without parent supervision or parents knowing of it—parents were at the home. So I think those are mitigating circumstances in considering not moving forward with termination.”
The local news station spoke to at least one parent who hoped her son would never be in Spruill’s class.
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