[JoshW]

By MELISSA NELSON
Associated Press

February 16, 2006, 1:41 PM EST



PENSACOLA -- An Escambia County middle school gym teacher let children sit out his class if they paid a $1 bribe daily, netting him perhaps thousands of dollars, officials said Thursday.

Authorities said students paid Terence Braxton, 28, of Atmore, Ala., between September and December. He turned himself in early Thursday at a Pensacola jail on bribery charges and was released on his own recognizance, Escambia sheriff's Sgt. Mike Ward said.

``It's not bad if you can make an extra $100 a day tax free,'' said Ronnie Arnold, spokesman for the Escambia County School District.

Arnold said Ward Middle School principal Nancy Gindl-Perry learned of the scheme from a parent and began her own investigation in December. She then contacted authorities and placed Braxton on administrative leave. Braxton resigned before the school board was scheduled to vote to fire him at a January meeting.

``Just when you think you've seen it all,'' Arnold said.

Between the time Braxton resigned and the arrest warrant was issued earlier this month, Braxton taught some classes as a substitute teacher at the Atmore School District in Alabama, Arnold said. That district removed Braxton from its substitute list after Florida officials notified administrators of Braxton's history, Arnold said.

Mike Ward, spokesman for the Escambia County Sheriff's Office, said six students have pursued charges against Braxton, but many more students are believed to have paid him to get out gym class.

``One of the kids said something to their parents and the parents said something to the principal and the principal started interviewing his classes and everybody was like 'Yeah, I paid and I paid,''' Ward said.

The official charges accuse Ward of taking about $230 from the six students, but Ward said Braxton's actual take from the 250 sixth-to-eighth-grade boys and girls was girls was likely much greater.

District officials have reported the allegations to the Florida Department of Education Professional Practices Commission, which could revoke Braxton's teaching certificate if he's found guilty of the charges.

Braxton does not have a listed phone number and could not be reached for comment Thursday

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/loc...home-headlines

[bigboydan]

``It's not bad if you can make an extra $100 a day tax free,'' said Ronnie Arnold, spokesman for the Escambia County School District.

LMFAO

[pags11]

what a piece of crap this guy is...

[BuddyBear]

damn...i should try that with my students I could probably get at least $5

[imgv94]

damn...i should try that with my students I could probably get at least $5

Buddybear you are a teacher???

You are cool in my book brother. Keep up
the good work..

[Illusion]

damn...i should try that with my students I could probably get at least $5

What do you teach BB?

[BuddyBear]

I teach persuasion theory and research....some of the stuff applies to gambling there is a great article on touts that I assign to students during the semester to read.

[BigDaddy]

I teach persuasion theory and research....some of the stuff applies to gambling there is a great article on touts that I assign to students during the semester to read.

Thats Cool!

[JoshW]

Buddy Bear, you ever have any connection to high school or college competitive debate? Sounds right up your alley. Either way the skills you are teaching people are very useful, am sure they are grateful to have you as a teacher.

[BuddyBear]

Well in terms of debate we don't really deal to much with that....some of the stuff that students learn in the class are very useful for debate but the course tend to be more quantitiative than anything else. We look a lot at theory...we talk about things like heuristics (i.e. mental/cognitive shortcuts)....

For example when Tout A sells his picks for only $10 and Tout B sells his picks for $100 why do more people select Tout B...because they realy on "price" to make that decision...they reason to themselves that the more expenseive the better...just like when you go to a grocery store and u see the name brand vs the generic brand...you are being suckered into spending more money on identical products.

Well based on last semesters evaluations i don't think students were too grateful to have me as a teacher...but historically my evals have been among the highest so this semester I am trying to get them back up....not sure what happened last semester students weren't too thrilled with me even though I grade relatively easy.

[SBR_John]

I'm one of those buy the expensive stuff because at least if it sucks I feel better that I didnt buy crap that was cheap. I would say about 75% of the time you get what you pay for and the other 25% you over pay for the same stuff.

[JoshW]

Very interesting, thanks BuddyBear.

[isetcap]

I'm one of those buy the expensive stuff because at least if it sucks I feel better that I didnt buy crap that was cheap. I would say about 75% of the time you get what you pay for and the other 25% you over pay for the same stuff.

This thread reminds me of that commercial for "diet pills" where the whole marketing plan is to hyperinflate the price and then proclaim how wonderful the product is based solely on the fact that it's so expensive.