HIGH SCHOOL IN FLORIDA SEEMS FUN

PORT ST. LUCIE — Tiffany Shepherd, a biology teacher at Port St. Lucie High School, learned last week that she will not be asked to return when school starts next year, nor will she finish this school year.

Shepherd doesn't think it's her teaching skills that the St. Lucie County School District found objectionable but, rather, her after-school job as a bikini mate aboard Smokin' Em Charters fishing tours.

As such, Shepherd, a 30-year-old buxom blonde from Fort Pierce with an undergraduate degree in pre-med, performs the usual duties of a mate, but wears a bikini and fetches drinks and sandwiches for the men on board.

It's a job she took three weeks ago to help support her three young sons following a divorce, something she says is difficult to do on a teaching salary.

"I can make $600 in two days (fishing)," she said. "That's a week's pay for me in two days."

Smokin' Em Charters, a Port St. Lucie-based company, gained notoriety earlier this month when it was kicked out of the Fort Pierce city marina for violating the city's family-friendly atmosphere. The charter company's Web site has pictures of some of the bikini mates, many of them partially nude, and says the only job requirement is to look "hot in a bikini."

Shepherd, who said she does not go topless on the fishing boat, said she doesn't believe the job is inappropriate or at odds with her role as a teacher to high school students. Suggestive photographs of her are online, but with a disclaimer saying they should not be viewed by children under the age of 18, and her job on the boat requires her to wear no more or less than she might on any public beach, she said.

"You don't wear jeans or slacks to go fishing," she said. "I wasn't doing anything wrong."

But district officials say Shepherd was doing something wrong, it just didn't have anything to do with her after-school activities. They say Shepherd missed more than 30 days of school this year and received two written reprimands for the absences.

"She just doesn't come to work," said Susan Ranew, the district's assistant superintendent of human resources. "We did not know about her second job until after she received her notice of non-renewal."

And, when Shepherd missed yet another day not long after being told she would not be reappointed, school officials decided enough was enough and hired a substitute teacher to finish the year, Ranew said.

School officials can release a teacher without giving a reason until they have successfully completed three years of teaching. About 150 teachers on average each year are asked not to return for a variety of reasons, including failing to complete certification requirements, poor performance or lack of content knowledge, she said.

Ranew said suggestive photos of Shepherd on the charter boat's Web site could have posed a problem with the district's code of ethics because they could undermine her effectiveness. But she said it was her absences, not the photos, that prompted her dismissal.

Shepherd, who worked at St. Lucie West Centennial High School for three years before moving to Port St. Lucie High, still was on an annual contract because she was not reappointed in her third year at Centennial, Ranew said.

Shepherd said she switched schools because she had a disagreement with her supervisor over paperwork after taking six to seven weeks of family leave to care for an ailing son. She said she also has had frequent migraines since being in a bad car accident.

But Shepherd, who said she thinks she missed about 20 days this year, said she doesn't believe her absences are the reason she was told to leave, and she said she knows of another teacher at Port St. Lucie High who missed three-quarters of the year for a stomach ulcer but was reappointed for next year.

"They can not reappoint me for that, that's fine, but they fired me now," she said. "That's not the reason they let me go now. It's Smokin' Em Charters."