Detours: a country in search of direction
On the eve of the election, a reporter and photographer set out for Washington, via America. We tell stories from seven towns, touching on seven issues from politics and real life.
Friday Night Rewind It doesn't matter which team you cheer for. We've got video previews of every high school football program in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando County.
Game show themes
These themes are probably going to make some of you have flashbacks to wasted mornings or afternoons spent sprawled in front of the TV.
BROOKSVILLE — A Hernando High School coach under investigation for possible inappropriate contact with female students has resigned, school district officials said Thursday.
Eric A. Riggins, 37, was suspended with pay last month after officials learned he and another coach may have ventured into students' hotel rooms during a night of post-prom partying in Clearwater. School officials were also investigating sexually suggestive messages Riggins allegedly sent to a student, according to a document obtained by the St. Petersburg Times.
Police have opened a criminal investigation into the matter, interviewing dozens of students at the school, said Joe Vitalo, president of the Hernando Classroom Teachers Association.
In his May 4 resignation letter, Riggins said only that "I am resigning from Hernando County School Board as a paraprofessional and as an assistant football and head boys track coach." He could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Riggins was arrested in 1998 on a charge of burglary with assault. He was accused of forcing his way into a girlfriend's home and threatening to kill her, court documents show.
He eventually pleaded no contest to the lesser charge of aggravated assault, a third-degree felony, and was sentenced to probation with adjudication withheld.
He was also arrested in 2000 on charges of trying to sell marijuana to an undercover police officer, but the State's Attorney's Office declined to prosecute due to a problem with a witness.
Despite that record, the school district hired Riggins in 2003 as an aide at the alternative school. He later coached at Nature Coast Technical High School.
In 2006, the Florida Department of Education moved to deny his application for a coaching certificate, but a state panel later reversed that recommendation and gave him a provisional certificate along with a reprimand and $250 fine.
Tom Marshall can be reached at tmarshall@sptimes.com or (352) 848-1431.
[Last modified: May 09, 2008 06:57 PM]
Comments on this article
by ken
May 9, 2008 6:57 PM
how come no picture???? want to know what he looks like, lets get a pic
by Chip
May 9, 2008 11:45 AM
This jerk ruins it for everybody seeking a "second chance." What a sleazeball. The Florida Department of Education took an appropriate and hardline stance, but had their recommendation reversed. This is how Riggans paid back the state panel.
by Maryann
May 9, 2008 11:41 AM
How could Mr. Riggins be resigning from the Hernando Co. School Board. He was a coach and not a member of the Board.
by d
May 9, 2008 11:35 AM
He is 31 not 37. Still stupid though
by Sam
May 9, 2008 11:34 AM
Why would NCT hire this guy without doing a background check. This is first Nature Coast's fault and then also Hernando's, but HHS probably didn't worry about running it since NCT should have. Question that??
by Concerned Parent
May 9, 2008 11:15 AM
The school board needs to know that he is still hanging around the schools. His wife is an employee and he is always at her school. GET HIM OUT! The police need to step in!
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