Would Citrus Schools Allow Her Around Students?

I hope everyone had a great week last week and weekend! I am back from my trip and ready to get back to the day to day of this page. I had a pretty busy weekend, so rather than something new today, I am jumping back to the Tara Salute post I made last week.

Long story short, Tara was arrested in 2012 for having sex with a 16 year old boy in her home. You can read the arrest details below

Why did I decide to do this today? For one, I got more information.

Secondly, I received a phone call from Tara around 4pm on Friday. During this call, she asked me to not write anything further about her as all of this has been causing chaos on her life. She explained that all this happened years ago and should not be an issue today. It is hurting not only herself but her family as well.

We had about a 5 to 10 minute conversation. I explained that I held off on the post for a few weeks because I was gathering information. Once it went viral, I decided to share at that point. Everything that I posted was factual. I have since heard a ton of things, but will not be sharing those here as I have no way to verify them.

I will never publish hearsay. If I can not verify it with a document of some sort, then I won't publish it here. Just a rule of mine... also avoids the attorneys.

Speaking of... I am expecting to hear from hers shortly after this post goes live. She had told me it may be time to get her lawyer involved.

I will also say this. People do deserve second chances. Had she decided to open any other business aside from working with students, no one would likely have said anything... but working with students after all the issues? Help me make sense of that.

Now... why am I writing this today?

Well, during that conversation, I asked her this question:

"Now that I have you on the phone, let me ask you this. If you were to go to the school today and apply for a substitute teacher job or apply to attend a field trip as a chaperone, would you pass the background check?"

For those not familiar, Florida has the Jessica Lunsford Act. It was created in 2005 following the murder of a child named Jessica Lunsford in 2005 by a sex offender. This happened here in Citrus County and made national headlines. The law requires everyone who has contact with students to pass a level 2 background check. As such, substitute teachers and chaperones would have to pass it. I have to pass it as well since I work directly with students for portraits.

Her reply to my question was along the lines that she would be able to pass the background check and be allowed on campus. She made it sound as if she had already passed a background check, but I have no way to know that since those are private and not available via public records. But she was adamant that she would pass and be allowed on campus around students.

My follow up:

"Ok great. Let me reach out to the school district and if that is the case, I will write about this Monday and tell everyone that you would be allowed on campus and you would be able to pass the background check without any problems. That will help ease minds of those in the community."

Her response was to ask me not to do it. She stated that she just wanted it to go away and if people continue to bring it up, it will continue to be out there.

Uh... red flag.

The issue most, if not all, people have with this is that she is working with kids. She told me that she does not run a school, however, the website says differently with instruction from 9:30 to 2:00 pm (I have a screenshot of the page in case it is deleted later). If not a school, structured learning.

Regardless, I would think if it was true that the school district would allow her on campus and around students, that fact would be a HUGE thing to get out into the public.

That would ease most people's minds right? So, why not desire that to help clear confusion?

I think I know why... hint... she wouldn't be allowed on campus.

Doing a bit more research, I found that her adjudication of guilt was withheld. Here is the document stating that.

Basically what this means is that she is NOT a convicted felon. The judge sentenced her to probation and once that was completed, it was as if nothing ever happened. No criminal record... No conviction... Nothing... for the most part.. More on that in a bit.

She did change her plea from "Not Guilty" to "Nolo Contendere" as part of the plea deal. In this change, the state recommended the following disposition:

i. Withhold of adjudication of guilt, (discretion of court)
ii. 3 years probation with the standard conditions;
iii $398.00 court costs;
iv. $100.00 cost of prosecution;
v. $50.00 per day cost of incarceration;
vi. $20.00 crime stoppers trust fund;
vii. Undergo drug and alcohol evaluation within 60 days and treatment as directed by the probation department and random screening to determine compliance with this term of probation at the direction of her probation officer and at the Defendant's own expense;
viii. Submit two(2) samples of DNA to be registered in the FDLE DNA data bank; ix. No unsupervised contact with any child under the age of 18 unless related in the second degree of consanguinity until completion of drug and alcohol evaluation and treatment. Upon proof of completion of evaluation and treatment, contact shall be modified to provide that the Defendant will not be alone in the presence of any minor child not related in the second degree of consanguinity; and
x. Defendant shall be allowed to travel to and from Marion County for her children's school, sports and extracurricular activities.

Here is the document.

Here is the score sheet to determine sentencing. Let's just say she had a good lawyer. She went from sex with a minor to child abuse and avoided prison time and sex offender registration.

She had her probation terminated early for following the rules and finishing an outpatient program. I presume everything else terminated with this probation as well.

Now, back to the school district thing.

On the score sheet, you will notice it says the charge falls under Florida Statute 827.03: Child Abuse. That is important. Why? The Jessica Lunsford Act.

I reached out to Lindsay Blair, who is the communications/public relations person at the school district. I also CC'd Megan Davis, who is in charge of the background checks for vendors in the district. I was not sure who would be best to answer.

Here is the email that I sent.

This is the response I received from Ms Blair.

Notice the highlighted portion. It does not matter if she was adjudicated and is no longer convicted of that crime... she would still fail the level 2 background check at the school district... and notice the reply includes the Section 827.03 that I had asked about. The background checks ignore adjudication.

I reached back out to ask if that included someone who wanted to be a chaperone, and Ms Blair stated that it did.

Due to this, she would NOT be allowed on a school campus in a capacity that has contact with students. Seems to me that would be a pretty big issue for parents to know about right?

She has also permanently lost her teaching certificate in the state of Florida.

Now, remember, her learning center thing is NOT a public school. It is private and as such, follows different laws.. and perhaps she does not have contact with students, which would make all this a moot point, although the reviews on the website seem to suggest otherwise.

My understanding is that they are not required to perform level 2 background checks... UNLESS... they are accepting state scholarship programs. She stated that they will begin to offer Step Up For Students, but I am not sure if that triggers the requirement for the level 2 background check.

In any case, she made it clear what she is doing is legal and not breaking any laws.

No one has said that she is breaking any laws and I am not doing so here. I am simply educating the public and reminding them to look into people/companies/etc before sending their kids there... and that applies to everywhere, not just Tara and her Learning Academy.

Perhaps it is time to push Florida Legislature to require all entities that allow direct access to students to require everyone with that access to pass a level 2 background check. Seems crazy that for a public school you would have to but private school is exempt. I did not realize that evil ignores private schools.

If you desire more reading, here is the 17 page investigative report that outlines all the interviews that the deputies did with those involved and also the interviews with Tara. Pretty wild stuff.

Like I said, she had a great attorney.

She can get mad at me for talking about all of this, but it did happen and is 100% factual.