Tiffany gets fires, while Wendy Portillo gets "Reassigned"

In a not directly related but linked Story, a St. Lucie School district Kindegarten teacher is in trouble for staging a classroom vote for the removal of an Autistic Student. Strange, Tiffany gets fired, while Wendy Portillo gets "re-assigned"

Morningside Elementary kindergarten teacher Wendy Portillo has been reassigned until further action may be determined, according to St. Lucie County School district spokesman Janice Karst.

Karst said in a statement this morning Portillo had been reassigned out of the classroom at the district offices.

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Last week, Portillo held a vote in her classroom in which kindergarten students "voted out" 5-year-old Alex Barton, who is in the process of being tested for Asperger's Disorder, a type of high-functioning autism. Alex's mother, Melissa Barton, said the vote was taken after classmates were allowed to tell Alex what they didn't like about him .

Tiffany Shepherd

The former local high school teacher who made headlines for working on a bikini-themed charter boat has made her decision about posing for Playboy.
According Tiffany Shepherd's employers she will be taking it off for magazine.
Shepherd found herself in the national spotlight when she claimed the St. Lucie County School District let her go last month because of her part-time job as a bikini- mate on the Smokin' Em fishing charter boat.
The school system says it let her go because she had too many absences.
Shephard's bosses say she will be paid $ 25,000 to do the Playboy shoot. Honestly that seems a little low for the publicity she has raked in. I'm sure the magazines will just flying off the shelves.

Personal Items of Tiffany's were "Stolen" from her classroom

Tiffany Shepherd, the former educator who claims she lost her teaching contract because of her bikini mate job, wanted to report textbooks, family pictures and other items as stolen from her classroom, though police ultimately classified the matter as "lost or misplaced property," according to a report released Tuesday.

Shepherd sparked a media frenzy after alleging she was released from her teaching contract because of her job with 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.

Also Tuesday, Smokin' Em Charters owner Gil Coombes said he's talking with a property manager about opening another bikini boat in the Tequesta area.

"We're going to go down there and see what this guy has to offer," he said. "We've already got a boat that's ready to go."

According to the police report, Shepherd returned to Port St. Lucie High School on Thursday to pick up some items she left in her classroom. She met with the principal, who'd boxed up her belongings, but told an officer several things remained missing and she wanted to report them stolen.

Shepherd said she'd contacted some "unknown students" to go in her portable classroom and "remove some items for her." Principal Terry Davis said he and Assistant Vice Principal Miriam Webster "intercepted students entering the classroom and removing items that belonged to Tiffany."

Webster said Shepherd last was at school on April 23 to turn over some keys and pick up some belongings. She told Shepherd she could return the next day to retrieve the rest of her belongings, but Shepherd never showed.

An officer searched the classroom but couldn't find any of Shepherd's things. On Friday, the principal told police the classroom was searched and more things that might belong to Shepherd turned up. An officer left several messages for Shepherd at the number she provided, but the officer hadn't heard from her. Shepherd couldn't be reached Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Coombes said the possible expansion plan would be to run bikini charters from the Tequesta location but "we may do the topless out of there, I don't know."

Shepherd, he said, has done just one or two charters since getting released from the school district.

He said reported plans to operate a scantily clad male charter service aren't linked to his business.

"That ain't happening with Smokin' Em Charters," he said. "That is something that my wife is going to do on a venture of her own and is not to be associated or related to Smokin' Em Charters."

Thanks to the Publicity from Tiffany Shepherd, Smokin' em is expanding

They made national headlines when word got out that they had a shapely blonde, former teacher working as a bikini-mate on their fishing boat. And their business has taken off. "I'd say it doubled, at least," says Kathi Coombes of Smokin' Em Charters in Ft. Pierce.
Their website shows a number of the nine young women who are on the payroll.
Now the same folks who've been running that topless and bikini fishing charter boat in Fort Pierce plan to operate another boat just like it in Jupiter. "I have people that are calling me from Ft. Lauderdale, West Palm that want to go on a fishing trip, but they don't want to go clear to Ft. Pierce. Jupiter's not that far," says Coombes.
They've found a person with a private dock on the Intracoastal Waterway in Jupiter large enough to accomodate a charter boat, and they'll be catering to even more guys who want to go deep-sea fishing, in the company of topless women or women wearing nothing more than a bikini and a smile.
"If I can go ahead and push it one notch further, we're gonna do it," says Gil Coombes of Smokin' Em Charters.

Not only are they adding a boat that will be docked in Jupiter for topless and bikini trips. They're also adding a boat with a female captain for female customers who want to go fishing or sunbathing that will be staffed by well-built guys wearing Speedos or boy shorts.
That boat will probably be based in Stuart. "When they get out there, they'll just be waiting on 'em, serving 'em drinks, probably putting on some lotion for 'em. It's like a little one-day vacation," Kathi Coombes told us.
She believes women will go for the idea, hook line and sinker. "I've talked to quite a few of my friends and they're like hey, I'm the first one on that charter. Women love to be pampered!"

More Pictures of Tiffany Shepherd

You've all asked for it, so here are some more TIFFANY SHEPHERD PICTURES for your perusing.

So What, so TIFFANY SHEPHERD Did go Suntanning without her top on...

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.

And the Articles on TIFFANY SHEPHERD Keep Coming

Recently, a Florida Biology teacher, Tiffany Shepherd, was fired because she had a part-time job at a business known as Smokin Em Charters. This fishing service hires young women to become "bikini girl mates" who assist men as they pay to go deep-sea fishing. Shepherd claims that she was fired from Port St. Lucie High School because of her second job and pictures of her in a bikini on the Smokin Em Charters website. However, school officials insist that it was not the reason. Instead, they are claiming that Shepherd was absent from her job as a teacher many times, which subsequently warranted her loss of the job.

It seems like young teachers are being fired left and right from their jobs because of their behavior after hours, and it seems that perhaps more teachers need to be more tactful when it comes to their behavior if they want to stay employed. I'm not staying that it was okay for the school to fire her because of her second job, but I'm sure school officials felt pressure from parents because of the controversial situation. It may just be easier for teachers to be aware that things end up on the Internet and that they need to keep their personal lives private.

Every example I've seen of a teacher getting fired for reasons that have nothing to do with his or her job performance stems from people at work finding out about things that they have no business knowing about. Pumpkin, a contestant on Flavor of Love, paid the price for her behavior on the show because she can't substitute teach anymore. School officials told her that she was too distracting to the students and she simply wasn't creating a productive learning environment. Pumpkin has said that she now regrets certain things she did on the show and the fact that she cannot find work is not worth the 15 minutes of fame she got on VH1.

I think that if Shepherd hadn't had pictures of her in a bikini posted on the Smokin Em Charters website, things would not have blown up in the way that they did. But when high school boys have these pictures so easily accessible, it does cause problems at school, which takes away from the professional atmosphere and relationship teachers need to maintain with their pupils. Another idea would be for teachers to find jobs that don't require them taking their clothes off. As a Biology teacher, I'm sure Shepherd could have found another job, but it seemed that the opportunity for so much money was just too good to pass up. Now, she has to deal with finding another full-time job altogether.

In general, I think it may just be easier for teachers to understand that actions like this do cause distractions at school, and when you have teenagers that you have to keep on task, it may be a little difficult to do so with such a controversial second job or contentious pictures/videos on the Internet.

More On Tiffany Shepherd and her firing

Tiffany Shepherd's advertised 34 DD/E breasts might be bared in the pages of Playboy magazine, an offer the bikini mate and former high school teacher is considering for her children's future.

“There's a lot of people coming up with a lot of different offers,” Shepherd said via cell phone from New York Wednesday following a television appearance. “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, became a media sensation after claiming she was released from her teaching contract because of her job on a charter boat offering trips with bikini-clad and topless women.

The St. Lucie County School District, however, cites Shepherd's “excessive absences,” rather than the buxom and tattooed blonde's gig with Fort Pierce-based Smokin 'Em Charters. Shepherd, a former biology teacher, had more than 30 unexcused absences this school year and two reprimands in her personnel file.

As news of the charters and Shepherd's bikini photos rocketed through the local media, the big-time inquiries started pouring in – Dr. Phil, Maxim, FHM.

Over the past few days, Playboy expressed interest in nude shots to the tune of $25,000 per photo, she said.

The pictures, according to Smokin' Em Charters owner and Shepherd manager Kathi Coombes, would be done “very tastefully.”

“It's not going to be spread eagle shots or anything like that,” she said.

Other charter girls also might be included.

A comment from a Playboy representative was not immediately available.

Asked whether she would pose nude, Shepherd said: “I'm not sure yet. I'm, still thinking about it. That's a really big decision for me considering my children.”

“There's pros and cons for not doing it and pros and cons for doing it,” she continued. “I'm really thinking about it because I do want to provide for my kids.”

She said she likely will decide in the next week or so.

Coombes, meanwhile, said some of her girls left following the media attention, but she's made some new hires.

“One is a Budweiser girl,” Coombes said. “She is on her first charter (Wednesday).”

Shepherd said if she does pose for Playboy, she'll likely set up some sort of scholarship.

Shepherd said someone also called expressing interest in putting her in a comedy film.

“We also just ran into a person from Victoria's Secret,” she said. “That might be an option, too, yay!”

Offer on the Table from Playboy for Tiffany Shepherd

Things are heating up for a Treasure Coast fishing charter company and the teacher who works there.

You probably remember Tiffany Shepherd. She says the St. Lucie County School District let her go because she was working on the fishing boats wearing just her bikini.

Now, it looks like she might be getting the last laugh and more cash.

It appears Tiffany Shepherd has started her publicity tour. Right now, she's on her way to New York City due to appear on a Fox talk show in Wednesday morning. And, she says, there are more offers on the the table including one from Playboy.

So, things seem to be looking up for Tiffany Shepherd; plus, she's getting a lot of attention. "Radio stations from all over the country, different tv shows, newspapers, online Web sites, it's just been overwhelming. It's kind of cool because a lot of people are telling me to go for it."

We caught up with her as she was heading out of Palm Beach International Airport looking to cash in on her new found notoriety in New York City. "Yeah and I've got quite a few marriage proposals," she says.

Turns out, getting let go from her day job - teaching high school in the St. Lucie County School District - may actually be great for her bottom line.

The mother of three says she was just trying to make ends meet by working a second job on a fishing boat for Smoke 'Em Charters. They offer bikini clad and topless mates for fishing trips.

But, Tiffany says, she never went topless. "I would never do anything like that. Running around naked or letting people touch me, no thank you," she said last month.

Still, the school district says they had to let her go. Not because of the bikinil, they say, she was missing too many days. So now, she may wind up in pages of Playboy.

Kat Coombes, who also works for Smokin 'Em Charters is acting as Tiffany's temporary manager. "I heard through the grapevine that it's roughly $25,000 a photo."

And, Shepherd says, that's what changed her mind about possibly taking off her top. "The difference would be securing my childrens' future because it would be a lot more money involved."

Tiffany says she hopes to even get enough money to start a scholarship fund for some of her students. And, she is considering filing a law suit against the St. Lucie County School District.

It is Teacher Appreciation Week... Let's show our appreciation for Tiffany

The National Parent Teacher Association started Teacher Appreciation Week in 1984 to recognize teachers who dedicate their skills and abilities to educate our children. This week, May 5 through May 9 is Teacher Appreciation Week.


There is an actual day called Teacher Appreciation Day. According to the National Education Association, the origins of National Teacher Day are murky. Around 1944 Arkansas teacher Mattye Whyte Woodridge began corresponding with political and education leaders about the need for a national day to honor teachers. Woodbridge wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt, who in 1953 persuaded the 81st Congress to proclaim a National Teacher Day. The date this year for Teacher Appreciation Day is Tuesday, May 6, 2008.

More on the Tiffany Shepherd firing Story

SOURCE: http://www.palmbeachpost.com Editorial

Is this a school scandal in the flesh? The biology teacher claims that she lost her job for serving as a part-time bikini mate on a charter fishing boat.

Access Hollywood calling! Wait, put them on hold. Here's a call from Inside Edition. Meanwhile, The Post's Internet slide show of Port St. Lucie High School teacher Tiffany Shepherd's revealing bikini photos drew half a million hits.

It's an entertaining story: a teacher fired because prudish St. Lucie County School District officials objected to her work as a bikini-clad mate on Smokin' Em Charters, where she served drinks and sandwiches to Fort Pierce fishing boat customers. She did not go topless, as other Smokin' Em mates do. Even so, Ms. Shepherd said she can earn a week of teacher's pay in two days' work on the charter boat, and she has three young sons to support.

But according to the school district, Ms. Shepherd wasn't fired because of what she was paid for showing off on her part-time job. She was fired for not showing up at her full-time job.

St. Lucie district officials said Ms. Shepherd had exhausted her sick leave by Sept. 20, and missed 35 days by midyear. Ms. Shepherd said she has frequent migraines and that one of her sons was seriously ill this year. But the district says that she failed to respond to warning letters that sought documentation.

One school official said Ms. Shepherd's bikini photos on the Internet could have been a problem with the district's code of ethics. But the district did not know about the photos until after she was fired. Neither her part-time job nor the Internet photos would be reason to fire her. But anybody who misses work too many times without explanation is fishing to get fired.

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Ms. Shepherd's ample figure and her claims of unfair treatment generated heat and sympathy on the Internet. But the firing does not seem unfair. In fact, getting the boot for not showing up is about as basic - and boring - as it gets.