SARASOTA COUNTY -- Sarasota County School District administrators hired Anthony Presto to teach last fall after doing routine background checks: a fingerprint search and talking to references.

No flags were raised. And Presto's previous boss, Charlotte High Principal Barney Duffy, gave him high marks as a teacher.

It wasn't until late last year that Sarasota learned the man they hired at Glenallen Elementary had been fired from a teaching job in Massachusetts following allegations he gave drugs and alcohol to students.

It was also learned that Charlotte had investigated him after several girls complained he was touching them inappropriately.

Duffy didn't reveal either fact to Sarasota. While Charlotte's records show the allegations included massaging and flirting, an investigator determined the touching was not sexual. In a recent interview, Duffy said the incident was too minor to mention.

When Sarasota officials learned of the allegations, administrators scheduled a meeting in January to confront Presto. Within days, he resigned, citing health problems.

Ultimately, it was a simple Google search that exposed Presto's problems in Massachusetts to Sarasota officials. Those officials also could have uncovered the more recent allegations if they had read his Charlotte County personnel file, a public record anyone can inspect.

But like most Florida school districts, Sarasota County takes neither step before it clears a job applicant for hire.

Presto's career is a lesson in how Florida's system of regulating teachers fails.

Over four years, he was able to get jobs in three school districts -- first Charlotte, then Manatee and finally Sarasota -- without revealing allegations that arose against him.

His movement was facilitated by hiring practices that rely on job applicants disclosing past transgressions.

Sarasota, Charlotte and Manatee county school officials interview former supervisors, but they are not required to ask if a teacher has ever faced allegations of misconduct. Sarasota and Manatee do not request copies of investigative files against teachers.

Charlotte could have made sure any future employer would know about the allegations against Presto by reporting him to the Department of Education, which can flag, suspend or revoke a teacher's license. But the rules for when school districts must report are vague, and Charlotte officials said Presto's case was not serious enough to report.

Officials in Manatee and Sarasota said before they hired Presto, they talked to their counterparts in Charlotte and were never told he had been investigated and ordered to stop touching girls "unnecessarily."

"Unfortunately, they did not disclose what they should have disclosed," said John Bowen, Manatee County schools attorney. "We would not hire somebody with that on their record."

Charlotte High's Duffy told the Herald-Tribune the allegations were so minor he did not see the need to mention them when he got a call from a Sarasota principal.

"It was one of those things where there were virtually no findings," Duffy said. "I don't know, honestly, if I would do anything differently. If the findings had been more acute or severe, maybe."

Presto's treatment mirrors the findings of a Herald-Tribune investigation published last month.

The Herald-Tribune reviewed more than 15,000 state investigations into teacher misconduct and hundreds done by local school districts, finding that principals and district administrators regularly do not report misconduct allegations to state investigators. It also found dozens of educators who doubted students' allegations of abuse from the start.

During the Herald-Tribune's two-year investigation, district administrators in Charlotte and Sarasota counties defended their hiring practices, saying they are effective in identifying teachers with troubled pasts. Since then, Sarasota County has discovered it hired two educators with past troubles: Presto and Glenallen Elementary Principal Tim Romano.

Romano resigned March 19 after the district learned he had been accused in another state of physically attacking a student and then trying to influence students' testimony by giving them gifts. District officials hired him two years ago and were unaware Romano had been arrested until teachers discovered the information through Web searches. A judge later dismissed the assault charge.

The Sarasota County School District has appointed an internal committee to review hiring practices.

Superintendent Gary Norris expects recommendations this year and said he expects that principals will soon be required to specifically ask references if they are aware of allegations or investigations into a job candidate.

"If we're trying to do our absolute best to protect children, we should have all that information ... , " said Sarasota County School Board Chairman Frank Kovach. "Let's face it, if the press can get this information and the public can get the information, then certainly the school district ought to be able to find it."

New allegations

In 2004, three Charlotte High School girls accused Presto of touching them in overly familiar ways.

They said he let his hands linger on their waists and hips for so long it made them uncomfortable. One girl said she asked him to stop, but that he continued the touching throughout the term, according to Charlotte County schools' investigative records.

Another student said that Presto ran his fingers through her hair and massaged her back. During a health class while talking about body parts, a girl said, he ran his right hand over her left thigh.

"Mr. Presto made me feel uncomfortable and afraid to be by myself around him," one girl told a private investigator hired by the district.

Two girls reported they wanted to play softball but said they decided not to when they learned Presto would be the coach. Presto required his players to swim for fitness, the girls said, and they did not want to wear bathing suits around him.

The Charlotte County investigation concluded the touching had taken place but that it was not sexual.

During the investigation, the district also discovered that Presto had been accused of misconduct while teaching at Bishop Connolly High School, the private school in Massachusetts where he worked before moving to Florida.

Bishop Connolly fired him after students alleged he provided them with drugs and alcohol, records from a Massachusetts workers compensation court case show.

Presto did not mention the case on his Charlotte County application, saying he left Bishop Connolly because he wanted to relocate to Florida.

Presto had a connection when he applied in Charlotte. His roommate from Springfield College in Massachusetts was Charlotte High Athletic Director Brian Nolan.

This week, Presto told the Herald-Tribune that Nolan and Duffy knew about the allegations that cost him his job. He said Duffy wrote him a character reference for his court case in Massachusetts and that Duffy knew about days he had to take off work to appear in court.

Duffy and Nolan said they did not know about the specific allegations.

Investigative records show Charlotte County administrators learned of the Massachusetts allegations in 2004.

Tom Young, then an assistant superintendent for Charlotte schools, decided not to punish Presto for the touching or for the missing information on his application.

Young said he does not recall the reason Presto gave for not disclosing the previous allegations, but said it was good enough to convince him not to take punitive action. He told Presto to stop any unnecessary touching of students and sent him back to the classroom.

He did not turn the case over to the Department of Education's Office of Professional Practices.

State law requires school districts to report "legally sufficient" complaints against teachers to the education department.

In an interview this week, the retired Young said complaints against Presto were not serious enough to send to state regulators.

"There was absolutely nothing sexual. It all happened in plain view of other people," Young said. "The fact that some people took offense to this touching does not suggest for a minute that there was sexual harassment."

Manatee County's Bowen said Charlotte should have reported Presto to state regulators. That might have kept Presto from going to work at Lincoln Middle School in Bradenton, where he taught for about a month before leaving to get more pay in Sarasota.

"It's something that should be reported to the state, absolutely," Bowen said. "We probably would have recommended firing him. You don't touch the students, and you don't touch the money."

Presto said he never ran his fingers through a student's hair or touched a girl on the thigh. He said he's the type of person who would pat students -- male and female -- on the shoulders, and that any contact was nonsexual and occurred in front of his entire class.

"I explained to Tom Young that everything I did was unintentional," he said. "I had tears in my eyes, because I have a daughter. It broke my heart."

Jennifer Fennell, a spokeswoman for the education department, said she could not comment on Presto's case, but said districts should always report allegations if there is any doubt.

Fennell and other education department officials said they recognize the rules on when to report to the state are vague, and they are considering changes.

Sarasota County School District officials reported Presto to the education department in March for falsifying his employment application by not disclosing the disciplinary action against him.

However, they did not ask the Department of Education to investigate the allegations of improper touching from 2004.

Presto's Sarasota County personnel file now contains a letter of resignation that reads: "I regret to inform you that I need to resign ... Due to my medical condition I cannot fulfill my responsibilities."

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