Nature Coast investigation clears coach

A Nature Coast Technical School coach is back on the job and cleared of an ethics probe - although he won't be coaching girl's sports for the next two years.

Joe Vitalo, the president of the Hernando Classroom Teachers' Association, said an investigation revealed there was no wrongdoing by Ryan Wilson, who was suspended with pay last week as part of an ethics investigation stemming from text messages he received from a female student.

Wilson is a physical science and career development teacher at the school and assistant football coach. He also is the head boys track and field and girls weightlifting coach. He's taught at the school since January 2005.

Vitalo said Wilson had revealed to Nature Coast Technical School Principal ToniAnn Noyes that he was receiving texts from a student outside of school on various topics, including some personal issues he was trying to help her with.

In an effort to prevent the matter from getting further out of hand, Vitalo said he, Wilson and Noyes agreed to investigate the matter to ensure nothing inappropriate was going on.

Although nothing was found, Vitalo said Wilson received a letter of reprimand for not bringing the matter to school administrators sooner.

"Basically, he got in over his head in trying to deal with a situation himself instead of going to administrators for assistance," Vitalo said. "You can't do everything by yourself. In this case it was agreed that we should avoid the stereotype that there's something bad going on between a male teacher and female student and do the investigation to show that everything has been checked and that there isn't anything bad going on."

Although Wilson will continue to coach boys sports, Vitalo said Wilson will not be coaching any girls sports for at least two years - also as part of an effort to eliminate possible rumors of inappropriateness with female students.

Vitalo said rumors about happenings at the school have circulated since Wilson's suspension as well as negative comments about the school - some stemming from incidents last year when then band director Timothy Brightbill was discovered to have been involved in a sexual relationship with one of his 17-year-old students. He would later be convicted and sentenced to nine years in prison.

Three months later, former Nature Coast football coach and physical education teacher Jamie Joyner resigned following similar allegations of sexual impropriety with an 18-year-old student.

As to the text messages, Vitalo said the school district doesn't have a policy forbidding teachers or coaches from communicating with their students by calling or texting. In this information age, he said it's become commonplace.

"Teachers are more than just classroom instructors - they're mentors and should be able to communicate with students by a variety of means as need be," Vitalo said. "This issue comes up only when there are allegations, and we need to get away from these perceptions."

Although the official investigation might be concluded, school district officials have explained documents aren't made public until 10 days following conclusion of the probe. Documents pertaining to Wilson's investigation will be available to the public Monday, Feb. 22.