Tiffany Shepherd, the former teacher who claims she lost her teaching contract because of her bikini mate job, denied going topless during fishing charters, though admitted doing so on personal trips.
"That's what Florida people do," Shepherd, 30, said Friday. "You go out in the middle of the ocean, you get rid of your tan line. It's not that big of a deal."
The former Port St. Lucie High School biology teacher described a photo that surfaced of her donning a bikini bottom but no top as "simply laying on my stomach."
Shepherd became a media sensation after claiming she was released from her teaching contract because of her job on Smokin' Em Charters, which offers trips with bikini-clad and topless women. The St. Lucie County School District, however, cites "excessive absences," more than 30 of which Shepherd racked up this school year.
At least one parent expressed frustration with Shepherd's teaching, saying her 15-year-old daughter is losing out.
"She's the one who's suffering because the teacher didn't teach them and now she's not there," Lisa Killeen, 39, said.
Shepherd, who said she's pursuing a master's degree, encouraged parents of her students to contact her if their kids want academic help.
"I'll be more than glad to put in my own personal time and get these kids to where they can succeed for this semester," she said.
As news of the charters and Shepherd's bikini photos rocketed through the local media, the big-time inquiries started pouring in, including a reported offer of $25,000 per photo to be in Playboy magazine.
"When I started all this, it was for my children and it's still about my children, making sure that they're provided for," Shepherd, a single mother with three boys, said earlier this week.
On Friday, Shepherd disputed knocks on her teaching abilities, noting her students had almost two dozen assignments, lab work and projects. Had the reason for firing stemmed from her absences, she said, why wasn't she released earlier?
"I missed a lot of school in the beginning of the year during hurricane season when my son's eardrum kept bursting when the pressure levels dropped," she said.
In a Nov. 28, 2007, letter to Shepherd, Port St. Lucie High School's assistant principal wrote, "Your continued rate of absence is having a deleterious impact on the quality and continuity of your educational program/work performance."
Meanwhile, Smokin 'Em Charters co-owner Kathi Coombes said she has been fielding phone calls from just about every major radio station in Florida, as well as calls for interviews from radio stations in Ohio, Wisconsin, California and Texas.
The business is still operating out of Harbortown Marina in Fort Pierce after the Fort Pierce Marina evicted them, but since the media frenzy, Harbortown "is telling us things need to calm down," she said, because they do not like all the publicity.
She denied reports that her company ran "swinger parties" on their boat.
Coombes said six girls have left Smokin 'Em since the publicity because they participated in the topless charters and they did not want their family and friends to find out about it. However, she said she gets about 10 phone calls per day from women who wants jobs on the boat.
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