PANAMA CITY BEACH — J.R. Arnold High School’s former athletic director has turned down an offer to return to the school, after the state Department of Education (DOE) closed an investigation into allegations she behaved inappropriately with a former student athlete.
Karisa Wesley, 36, resigned from her job at Arnold last fall amid allegations she had used alcohol and marijuana and had sex with former student Eddie Williams, a football standout who graduated in 2012, during the 2011-12 school year.
The Bay County Sheriff’s Office and Bay District Schools investigated the claims. BCSO closed its investigation without charges when investigators didn’t find evidence to support felony charges because Williams was an adult at the time. Williams spoke with investigators after a classmate outlined the accusations to a former Arnold teacher last summer.
The school district responded aggressively and asked the DOE’s Office of Professional Practices to look into the allegations, Superintendent Bill Husfelt said.
“We went as far as we could, and even went to the state level,” Husfelt said, because state investigations can be perceived as more impartial than local investigations.
The DOE closed its investigation earlier this summer and took no action against Wesley, who resigned before the state concluded its probe despite vocal support from students and a School Board that was skeptical of the allegations. The DOE could have taken away her teaching certification.
Wesley was offered an opportunity to return to Arnold next week as an intervention specialist, which is a position similar to a guidance counselor, said Arnold Principal Keith Bland.
“She was always a stellar employee and worked hard for the kids,” Bland said. “It was sad to see what she had to go through.”
However, on Tuesday, Bland and Husfelt confirmed Wesley turned down the job. Husfelt said she’d been through a lot already with the way the media has “vilified her.”
Bland said he thinks the allegations were a fabrication, but he didn’t want to discuss what might have motivated them. “I don’t want to stir that up again,” he said.
An investigative summary from the DOE said investigators made several attempts over the course of several months to reach the accusers, whose identities have been scrubbed from the document, but were unsuccessful.
One of the students apparently held a grudge toward Wesley after the departure of three members of the Arnold athletic department, according to the DOE summary.
Wesley initially didn’t return a voicemail seeking comment Monday, but called late Tuesday expressing her unhappiness with news coverage of her potential return to Arnold.