BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — During their Wednesday meeting, members of the Florida Board of Education questioned a decision that ordered probation for a Former Brevard County teacher to remain in the classroom after a disciplinary case.
Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas said he recommended Calhoun be suspended.
Instead, the Education Practices Commission placed Melissa Calhoun on one year of probation, fined her, ordered her to take an ethics course, and issued a reprimand.
Calhoun was allowed to keep her teaching certification after she was accused of calling a student by a different gendered nickname without parental consent.
Vice Chair Esther Byrd said she was bothered by the disciplinary decision and asked, “Is there nothing the board could do to overturn the decision?”
Eyewitness News reached out to Calhoun who told us, “There seems to be an obsession with levying punishment much harsher than the recommendations given to them. You know, represent or misrepresenting me to the public as someone with intentions of purposely subverting parental rights. You know I’ve publicly stated that you know it wasn’t my intention and that it was an oversight and yet it continues to be represented as a political statement which was never my intent.”
Kamoutsas told the board, “I am working with the attorneys with the Department of Education to see if there are potential rule revisions that can be done on our end to prevent something like this from happening again in the future.”
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