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Teacher Removed Over Topless Photo From Super Bowl Party

Posted: 5:53 pm EST March 16, 2004Updated: 7:44 pm EST March 17, 2004

WEIRD PHOTOS: News Of The Strange Slideshow

SANFORD, Fla. -- A Seminole County teacher was removed from her duties in the classroom, after showing too much skin at a Super Bowl party.

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Do you think fourth-grade teacher Stacey Cherry should lose her job over the topless photos?
The fourth-grade teacher says the district is going too far by removing her from the classroom for using poor judgment, after she lifted her top and a friend snapped a picture.

Teacher Stacey Cherry says someone is out to get her. She says her principal, the superintendent and the school board members all received anonymous emails with pictures attached, pictures of her with her top raised. She admits she'd had too much to drink at that Super Bowl party, but says the district has been unfair in their investigation of the incident.

Super Bowl Sunday, Janet Jackson wasn't the only one showing her breast. Stacey Cherry admits that she showed hers at a private party at an Altamonte Bar.

"Plain and simple, two in the morning and the Bud-Bowl beads were being passed around and everyone was teasing me, 'You gotta show your boobs, you gotta show something,'" says Cherry.

So, Cherry says, she "earned" the beads and someone snapped two pictures, pictures she says were posted on a private web page, but later downloaded. The temporary toplessness was mysteriously emailed to all of Stacey's bosses, including the school board, the superintendent and her principal at Goldboro Elementary, where she taught 4th grade.

"I was put on administrative leave for three days, and here I sit three weeks later," she explains.

Cherry says, last week, her teaching position was given to another teacher and she was not even notified, but her first-grade daughter was.

"My daughter knew that I didn't have my job before me. All of my friends and co-workers knew. My daughter's teacher was calling me. Nobody made me aware of anything," comments Cherry.

The school district didn't comment on camera Tuesday, but did say their investigation is still open. The district's human resources director characterized the Super Bowl incident as "totally inappropriate behavior" and "not what the district expects" from its elementary school teachers.

Cherry says, fired or not, she just wants to know. "They are not giving me any answers."

Tuesday, Cherry's principal said Cherry made a serious error in judgment, but admitted, otherwise, she was a great teacher.

Cherry says she didn't even get the chance to collect thousands of dollars of books and other supplies that she purchased for her classroom. She has hired an attorney now and plans legal action against the school district.

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