The Alabama teaching certificate of former Lexington resident Brian Kieth McGuire was revoked by the State Board of Education last week, after several investigations that go back nine and one-half years. McGuire is contesting this revocation, and the Board has now made public their reasons for the loss of his license. From Sherrill W. Parris, Assistant State Superintendent:
1. On or about Feb. 1, 2002, and on or about Feb. 28, 2002, you inappropriately touched female students.2. On or about March 8, 2002, 20 female students complain of your inappropriate conduct toward them, after which an incident/offense report was filed on or about May 5, 2002, with the Limestone County Sheriff’s Department for your inappropriate touch of two female students. 3. In approximately 2002, you watched pornography on your school office computer, as witnessed by at least one of your students.4. The above incidents and charges occurred during your employment by the Limestone County School System as a physical education teacher during 1995 to 2002. 5. On or around Dec. 20, 1990, you had oral and vaginal sex by forcible compulsion with (alleged victim – name removed), who had not given you any consent and who had been babysitting your brother’s children at the time.
“I disagree with the recommendation of the administrative law judge. I find that the ALJ was in error in his finding that you admitted to having sex with (alleged victim – name removed) to her father and that her father did not accuse you of raping her. The father’s testimony in the criminal trial refutes these findings. Further, I find that the medical records admitted into evidence, which state that the victim reported the rape to her physician support her testimony and should have been addressed in the ALJ’s recommendation when considering the department’s evidence. Based on these findings, I find a direct relationship between those matters and conduct reflected therein and your ability to be an effective teacher, a role model for Alabama public school students, and your fitness to teach. I find your conduct to be immoral, indecent, unbecoming and just cause for revoking your Alabama Professional Educator Certificate.”
We had previously been aware of some of these charges; others we are now seeing for the first time. How nice to know McGuire was using computers paid for by the taxpayers of Alabama (read: You and Me) to view demeaning images of women.
We also understand that Keith McGuire is being investigated concerning harassing communications he sent various individuals in the media and the family of at least one of his accusers. It's interesting to note that while a jury in Lauderdale County found McGuire not guilty of the rape for which he was tried in 2009, the Alabama State Board has, after reading the same testimony, found him to be guilty.
Are there any out there who think Brian Keith McGuire or others like him should be teaching the youth of our state? Let's make the state education motto "No More Pass the Trash."
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Kudos to Jean Cole of the Athens News Courier for her tireless work in investigating and reporting on this former Clements teacher.
Shoalanda
For those who came in late, Brian Keith McGuire is a teacher and former coach who grew up in the small Lauderdale County town of Lexington. After working several years as a barber, McGuire returned to school and graduated from Athens State University with a degree in education; he then taught at Clements High School in western Limestone County.
After accusations that he initiated unwanted sexual contact with two female students, McGuire resigned from Clements in 2002 and taught at three other Alabama schools before being indicted on a rape charge in 2008. At that time two other Clements students came forward with stories of improper conduct by McGuire, and the Alabama Board of Education sought the revocation of McGuire's teaching license. An initial hearing was continued until after McGuire's 2009 trial, at which he was found not guilty of assaulting a teenage babysitter.
It was not until December 14th and 15th of 2010 that the revocation hearing was concluded, with authorities promising a verdict within 30 days. Due to requests for various rebuttals and other delays, the verdict was not announced until last Friday. On September 30th, nine and one-half months after the hearing, a judge pronounced that the State Board of Education had not sufficiently proved McGuire was morally unfit to teach in the state.
Unlike a trial, this hearing does not produce an actual verdict, but only a recommendation to the state superintendent. Now, Interim Superintendent Larry E. Craven will decide the fate of McGuire's licensure...or he could postpone the decision until his replacement is announced.
Those who claim to have been the victims of sexual abuse by McGuire have made their unhappiness with the decision known. Two former Clements students and the alleged rape victim are among those who have offered their opinions on the special judge's decision. We'll bring them to you tomorrow.
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Sources with the Muscle Shoals Police Department have stated that former UNA student Corey Langley Griffin, currently accused of rape and awaiting indictment, has two similar previous charges for violence against women. Both a former high school girlfriend from Talladega and a former UNA girlfriend have restraining orders against the one-time high school tennis star. Griffin's response to the charges: "The criminal complaint filed in district court says that Griffin told investigators that he only used the victim for sex, and that she understood her place with him."
It should be an interesting trial...Related post: Corey Griffin
Shoalanda
"He stated he had a problem." - Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely speaking of Keith McGuire When board members of the Lexington Water Department heard of the job sharing agreement between Keith McGuire and Lloyd Hayes, they too met behind closed doors. Even though Hayes was not an official employee of the town, such an arrangement was ill advised. McGuire gave up his job with the town, but once again many questioned his actions. Was Keith McGuire determined to insinuate himself into a position of familiarity with young girls, or just a man attempting to make a living during a difficult period in his life?McGuire taught at Haleyville High School for two years, with ostensibly no complaints. In the fall of 2004, McGuire moved to J. F. Shields High School in Beatrice, a small Monroe County town in South Alabama. After a year at Shields, McGuire moved again, this time to Jackson High School in Clarke County, even farther from his Lexington home. By this time, McGuire was divorced from his wife Tammy, who had taken their children and moved to Waynesboro, Tennessee. While it’s not unusual for some coaches to move frequently, many found it odd that each relocation moved McGuire farther from his family. McGuire publicly blamed any problems on Robin Greene of Limestone County. After the physical education teacher left Clements High School without any official sanctions, Mrs. Greene took it upon herself to warn Keith McGuire’s new employers of his past record. According to Mrs. Greene, she had collected the names of 50 students at various schools, all alleging to have been molested in some manner by McGuire. On February 14, 2006, McGuire filed a slander suit against Robin Greene, claiming her campaign to discredit him had hurt his reputation and brought undue hardship on him. The wheels of justice grind slowly, and this suit is still pending in Limestone County; however, McGuire also initiated a restraining order against Mrs. Greene, preventing her from contact with any school at which he is employed.With the Clements charges now seemingly behind him, Keith McGuire began to make a reputation for himself at Jackson High School--this time a good one. Besides his duties as assistant coach, McGuire taught Physical Education, Drivers’ Education, and Health. In the autumn of 2006, the National All-Star Football Association chose McGuire to coach a regional game in Cookville, Tennessee. Keith McGuire was finally receiving the kind of success and attention he thought he deserved. Then a Shoals area woman filed rape charges. To be continued...
"He stated he had a problem." - Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely speaking of Keith McGuireIt was early in 2002 when Robin Greene’s 12 year-old daughter came to her with a story of being touched by her physical education teacher. Coach McGuire had touched her breast while they were playing one-on-one basketball and she knew it wasn’t right. Soon a 16 year-old girl came forward with a similar story concerning the Clements coach.Clements, a rural school in western Limestone County, was a tight knit institution. Such things didn’t happen at the sprawling school where Keith McGuire had access to girls in the 7th through 12th grades. The school board called a special meeting and convened behind closed doors on March 7, 2002, to accept McGuire’s resignation. The board stressed that McGuire, who had not retained an attorney, had taken a polygraph with inconclusive results. No charges were filed against the teacher even though according to Sheriff Mike Blakely, McGuire stated that he had “a problem.” The board also agreed to take no further action on the Clements coach’s teaching license on the condition he agree to counseling. Keith McGuire attended one session.McGuire soon returned to the hamlet of Lexington where his father was a member of the town council. The town’s water department was in need of a meter reader, and Bobby McGuire made sure the job was offered to his son. Keith McGuire’s salary at the financially strapped water department was barely enough to meet his basic needs, and he began searching for another teaching position. Without any official black marks on his record and a still valid teaching license, McGuire found work in the nearby Haleyville school system. He began coaching at the Winston County school in September 2002, but the problem of his mounting debts remained. Not eager to give up his job with the town of Lexington, but unable to fulfill his obligations on his free weekends, he sought an assistant to help with meter reading and related duties. Soon his friend Lloyd Hayes, a former Florence City Fire Marshal and convicted sex offender, joined McGuire in the field. It wasn’t long before residents realized the two men spent an inordinate amount of time working around one local entity--Lexington High School.To be continued...
"He stated he had a problem." - Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely speaking of Keith McGuireWe expect those in the teaching profession to care for our children as their own and we should expect no less. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. There is always the John Mark Karr or Debra Lafave. When any teacher takes a sexual interest in his or her student, we are just that more wary of them all, sometimes judging them wrongly.How do we know the difference between an innocent touch and something more sinister? How can we judge the intent of a teacher we barely know? More importantly, what happens if we're wrong? When there's two, or perhaps three, sides to every story, how can we discern the truth from fiction?Such is the case of Brian Keith McGuire, a Lauderdale County native, now free on bond of $125,000.00 and facing a 1st Degree Rape trial in December. The son of Bobby and Jo McGuire of Lexington, Keith attended Lexington School for 12 years. By all accounts he was an average student and better than average athlete. His parents had helped establish the Lexington Rescue Squad, and his mother was held in high esteem by the community. Bobby, the current mayor of the small Lauderdale County town, was a strong presence in both the town and his own home. Those familiar with the family generally acknowledged that the soft-spoken Jo deferred to her husband.Keith, as his parents called him, also deferred to his father, but adolescence brought changes in the youth. Physically resembling his mother, Keith boasted a shock of red hair and an outgoing personality. Sometime after elementary school, Keith began to call himself Fox, a name that still follows him. Whether because of his auburn coloring or his fancied desirability to the opposite sex, Keith was well-pleased with this new persona. Many in the Lexington community describe him as the all-American boy, but others began to see a darker side as McGuire grew to manhood.Graduating from Lexington High School in 1978, Keith McGuire seemed at loose ends. No longer the high school jock, he began a career as a barber, but was always dissatisfied away from the lime light of athletics. Ending one's education after high school was not unusual in the rural atmosphere of Lexington, but other things about McGuire troubled some in the small town. Still others saw nothing wrong with boys being boys or sewing a few wild oats.In the autumn of 1992, McGuire returned to college at Athens State University, receiving his teaching degree two years later. Now married to a young woman from a well-respected Greenhill family, McGuire used family influence to secure a coaching job at Clements High School, just across the county line in Limestone. Here Keith McGuire taught Physical Education, but some students began to report that his style of teaching was just too physical, especially where young women were concerned.To be continued...
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