PENSACOLA, Florida (AP) -- A middle school gym teacher let children sit out his class if they paid him $1 a day, collecting perhaps thousands of dollars, officials said Thursday.

 

Terence Braxton, 28, took the payoffs between September and December, resigning after the principal learned of the scheme from a parent, authorities said.

 

Braxton, of Atmore, Alabama, turned himself in early Thursday at a Pensacola jail on bribery charges and was released on his own recognizance, Escambia County sheriff's Sgt. Mike Ward said.

 

The charges accuse Braxton of taking about $230 from six students, but Ward said the teacher's take from the 250 sixth-to-eighth grade boys and girls was probably much greater.

 

"It's not bad if you can make an extra $100 a day tax free," said Ronnie Arnold, spokesman for the Escambia County School District.

 

Arnold said Ward Middle School principal Nancy Gindl-Perry learned of the scheme from a parent and began her own investigation in December. She then contacted authorities and placed Braxton on administrative leave. Braxton resigned before the school board was scheduled to vote to fire him at a January meeting.

 

District officials have reported the allegations to the Florida Department of Education Professional Practices Commission, which could revoke Braxton's teaching certificate if he's found guilty of the charges.

 

Braxton does not have a listed phone number and could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Clever.

:lol

Man, if you're in middle school and you're paying a dollar to skip gym...

 

You're a loser!

 

Gym was one of the best classes back then. I mean, we were still competing and caring about who actually won in gym. And what little kids care if they smell?

 

It wasn't until high school that gym sucked. Because by then if you were an athlete you played another sport and didn't want to waste time, or you were worried about the smell factor, and, not to mention, there were people who didn't play sports who took it too seriously.

 

If someone had asked me if I wanted to skip gym, I'd be like, "What? Hell no. Get out them hockey sticks, brah, it's on!"

gym was a lot of fun back in middle school.

 

 

i never had gym in high school. we played war instead.

I had gym in high school too. I never played on a sports team (I was a band/choir guy) but I LOVED gym.

Kids that get punked or made fun of (or even pantsed!) would probably pay money.

 

I was 'neutral' in gym, but I felt bad for the kids who couldn't play sports and were always pushed around by other kids.

I guess the only reason I never had problems was I was bigger than all the athletes. :thumbup

collecting perhaps thousands of dollars

:o

I didn't do gym in high school because I had a sport all three seasons, but I loved middle school gym.

 

That said, there were kids who just weren't into competitive sports. For example, in 8th grade our P.E. coach brought in the high school wrestling coach and for a month we learned wrestling (and culminated with a tournament in front of the rest of the middle school), and some of the kids were just mortified by it.

Middle school gym was awesome. We played kickball all the time in 8th grade, best game ever.

 

Where else in school can you wing balls at peoples heads and then say "whoops, sorry" and get away with it? And you always had the losers who threw it too hard, so if you dodged it, it'd bounce off a wall and go flying back across the gym as you circled the bases.

 

Plus our gym had a balcony, so everyone used to gun for that all the time. And it was always a big deal if you did it. I think middle school kickball tournament weeks may have been the best thing ever.

 

High school gym sucked. Except when we played hockey. I had it the first period of the day, so I never did anything. I was half awake and didn't want to stink all day.

Smart man...

 

And I agree Middle School Gym>High School

 

In High school focused on the fitness bs rather than fun stuff like flag football, kickball, whiffle ball.

I'd be given coach a dollar to play kickball or hockey.

 

Oh, and for the record, we had this gym teacher named Nebbergal, dude was a former Michigan wrestler, just a freakin' little tank. And he used to be the pitcher during kickball and if you kicked that ball to him, he could full-scale pitch that bitch and light you up.

 

One time he threw the ball so hard he broke the fire alarm. Like it hit the plastic, the plastic hit the floor and the alarm went off for about twenty minutes while we kept playing.

i hated gym my 10th grade year, it was mostly running and sh*t. i wouldve paid a dollar to get out of that sh*t. we rarely played sports until near the end, f***ing Coach Flinchum or Flinchnuts like everyone called him. before that though, PE was the sh*t. i was developing a nice little jumper in the 9th grade.

Gym ruled through Middle School and High School. I don't know who'd be such a loser that they wanted to skip it. Hell, I took Gym three times in high school and I was only required to take it twice. I loved weight training and ultimate frisbee and floor hocky and many others. Ropes Course kicked ass too.

How can you have a problem with gym in Middle School, you're just playing.

 

It'd make more sense if Middle School kids paid teachers to not to homework, but paying to not play?