The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

Butler Tech teacher resigns, admits taking students to gay bar

Teacher admits taking four students to a club, where they allegedly consumed alcohol when she wasn't watching.

Area health group's focus already on child obesity problem
2/10/10
Man reportedly shot at apartment complex
2/10/10
Woman, 19, reports rape, declines to pursue charges
2/10/10
Local pharmacist joins online cardiac venture
2/10/10
Supporters trying to keep aviation film festival on this year
2/10/10
> More headlines

By Lauren Pack and Danielle Wilson
Staff Writers Updated 7:41 AM Friday, April 17, 2009

A Butler Tech teacher submitted a letter of resignation Thursday, April 16, after she admitted to taking four Edgewood High School cheerleaders to a gay bar in Dayton, where the students had been drinking, said Bill Solazzo, Butler Tech marketing director.

Lori Epperson, 37, taught marketing at Edgewood High School through a partnership with Butler Technology and Career Development Schools.

Epperson apologized in an April 10 e-mail to Edgewood High School Principal Bob Buchheim and Butler Tech administrators and admitted that she accompanied three 18-year-old students and a 17-year-old student to a bar in February. Butler Tech later found out the bar was Club Masque, Solazzo said.

According to Epperson’s e-mail, the four students went upstairs in the bar, where someone they knew apparently bought them alcohol shots and cosmopolitan cocktails, Epperson wrote in her e-mail, saying she observed this after following them upstairs, Solazzo said.

Before Epperson gathered the girls to immediately leave the bar, one of the young women was found sick in the bathroom, he said.

Epperson told school officials she got permission from the students' parents to take them to the club, assuring them there would be no alcohol consumption. The girls begged Epperson to let them go to the bar, she wrote. Because she didn't think it was a good idea for them to go, she went along with them, Solazzo said.

Butler Tech placed Epperson on administrative leave for "inappropriate decision-making on the part of a teacher" and initiated an investigation as soon as the allegations arose, Solazzo said.

"We take very seriously our obligation to protect our students," he said.

According to the Ohio Department of Education, Epperson was issued her two-year provisional license Nov. 13, 2008, effective July 1, 2008.

Rumors circulated about the activity in the Edgewood school community for weeks, the school resource officer finally heard versions of the story so many times that the high school administrator was notified and Epperson put on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation by Butler Tech administrators, Solazzo said.

The incident finally came to light last week because the students involved are Edgewood cheerleaders and they were forbidden from participating in a competition because of the school's zero tolerance policy about alcohol consumption, Solazzo said.

John Thomas, Edgewood schools spokesman, said the district does not comment on disciplinary actions involving students and the athletic department's drug, tobacco and alcohol policy.

Thomas said Wednesday that though Epperson also was the eighth-grade basketball cheerleading coach at Edgewood Middle School, the incident did not involve the middle school students.

Butler Tech is exploring the possibility of seeking legal action against the club for serving alcohol to minors, according to Solazzo.

Epperson's resignation will be reviewed for acceptance at the April 21 Butler Tech Board of Education meeting.

"We anticipate that the board will indeed accept that resignation," Solazzo said.

Share this article

ADD COMMENT

Comments feed

Criminal chareges! Give me a break! The students are 17 & 18 years old! So they went to a bar. Who cares!

Robert
8:00 PM, 4/22/2009

REPORT ABUSE

Epperson claims she did not supply the alcohol to these underage girls, including her own daughter... She also claims she had received permission from the student's parents to go to this "alternative lifestyle" gay bar featuring "drag queens"... There is no criminal liability here? WTF? Is everybody trying just tryin to "Duck and Cover"? Seems like we have a "double standard" goin on here!

Houdini
3:43 PM, 4/22/2009

REPORT ABUSE

I agree Epperson showed poor judgement by taking minors to a bar but I don't believe she should face criminal charges. There are so many people out there that do far worse things and they never get reprimanded. Plus the fact that the girls admitted to drinking the alcohol (which she did not give or buy for them) so obviously they have been drinking long before this, what does this say about their parents???

missy
10:04 AM, 4/22/2009

REPORT ABUSE

she didn't even have a teaching license .. maybe she figured she had nothing to loose ? she was wrong and can not accept the blame. why would she even think twice about taking a seventeen year old to a bar any who. maybe she went with the teens to be their DD. ever think of that one? ha pathetic ..

Santa Maria
6:06 PM, 4/20/2009

REPORT ABUSE

This teacher should be fired! There are plenty of teachers that would love to have her job. What an idiot. I don't care what kind of bar it was, teacher's should not hang with their students. It's inapproriate. Get friends your own age!

gracie
2:18 PM, 4/20/2009

REPORT ABUSE

There are 62 additional comments

SHOW ALL

We welcome your comments. Please remember this is a public forum and behave appropriately. Your comments must conform to our visitor's agreement.