SoWal High School Coach Arrested for Sex Abuse

[Camp Creek Kid]

This was brought up on another thread, but here is more from the Fox News home page http://www.foxnews.com

This is personally upsetting since Mark Cozzie was at Butler when my daughter was there.



Florida High School Teacher Charged With Sexual Misconduct of Students
Thursday, May 03, 2007

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. ? A high school coach and teacher was arrested on charges of sexual misconduct with 11 former students.

The Walton County Sheriff's Office charged Mark Cozzie with seven felony counts of lewd or lascivious conduct, one felony count of lewd or lascivious molestation and three misdemeanor counts of battery, the Northwest Florida Daily News reported.

Cozzie, 38, was arrested Wednesday and released on $50,000 bond.

According to arrest reports, his alleged victims ranged from 9 to 18 years old. They said Cozzie inappropriately touched them between 2002 and 2007 at South Walton High and Butler Elementary School.

Cozzie coached high school boys basketball and boys and girls track and field. He transferred from Butler to South Walton in 2002.

The sheriff's office began investigating Cozzie in late March after the state Department of Children and Families reported inappropriate conduct by a teacher involving a student, said sheriff's spokesman Lt. Bryan Maule.

The school board suspended Cozzie on April 3 without pay. The Florida Department of Education is also reviewing the allegations.

 

[dunelover]

Saw this article as well, w/ a few more details. Found it here, http://community.emeraldcoast.com/onset?id=15187&template=article.html
State Attorney?s Office gets South Walton High School coach?s case



By Rachel Kyler, Florida Freedom News

April 30, 2007 - 10:14AM



The State Attorney?s Office is ready to review the Walton County Sheriff?s Office?s investigation of South Walton High School teacher and coach Mark Cozzie.

Attorney James Parker was assigned to the case and said he will begin studying it within a week.

According to Walton County School District officials, the Sheriff ?s Office has been investigating Cozzie since late March for misconduct with a student.

According to a heavily redacted Sheriff ?s Office report, the alleged incidents involved four juvenile victims on school property. Cozzie was suspended without pay effective April 3, pending the investigation?s outcome. The Florida Department of Education is also reviewing the allegations.

School district officials have said that if the allegations are found to be true, Cozzie could lose his professional license.

The Sheriff?s Office will not release any more details about the case at this time. ?It?s still open. There?s all I can say,? said sheriff?s spokesman Lt. Bryan Maule

 

[Paula]

Very scary for everyone regardless of which school they're children are at. Similar things have happened in our local high school.

 

[jimmyp5]

I am most immediately concerned about the kids affected & them being able to move on with their lives.

And, also, I guess we need to rethink the old saying about no such thing as bad publicity.

I've had more & more people I know exploring the idea of moving here full-time, instead of only maintaining a second home -- which I think would be very positive for our community.

For many of them, the biggest single issue has been the relative quality of our schools. But I guess could happen anywhere. Very, very sad.

 

[dunelover]

Jimmy P,

I think you are right in your posts about those of us wanting to relocate being concerned about the schools. I started a thread about it a while back. It is concerning. But more so than this current issue are the school grades, and my recent report from greatschools.com showed Butler down from an A to B and freeport at b or C can't remember. But both are concerning to me. Private school is a good consideration, but those seem limited in the area as well.

I do also know that there are plenty of times that the accused are found innocent; however, as dateline is showing us this stuff is very prevalent.

Hopefully in this case, the kids will get good therapy, and both parents kids, and the administration will learn from it.

 

[Bobby J]

This is very sad. I am very grateful that someone finally stood up to this guy. I have heard that this has been going on a long time! He should have been removed years ago!

 

[beachmouse]

dunelover, they're tightening the grading standards in recent years to make it tougher for schools to get A grades. So test scores could be up, but because of the new standards, the letter grade may not reflect this. Explanation here:

http://www.okaloosaschools.com/okal...tes/template_nimg.aspx?articleid=204&zoneid=5

The Florida Department of Education recently released tough new guidelines for school grades in the 2006-07 school year, which will make it more difficult for schools to earn ?A? ratings, compared to the past few years.

Schools will now have to show that 50% of the lowest performing students demonstrate learning gains in both math and reading. Last year, the state measured the progress of the lowest performing students in the reading portion alone.

Students are considered to have made learning gains in one of three ways:

- if they improve their FCAT level (from a 1 to a 2, or a 2 to a 3);

- if they remain at one of the higher levels (3, 4 or 5); or

- if they demonstrate more than one year?s progress within an achievement level of 1 or 2.

Another challenge this year is that the science portion of the FCAT will count toward the school grades for the first time. Students in 5th grade, 8th grade and 11th grade are required to take the science FCAT, while students in grades 3-10 are required to take the math and reading portions of the FCAT.

 

[Smiling JOe]

Several people have mentioned that this abuse has been ongoing for several years. If that is true, why on Earth did it take so long for him to get caught, and why was he not fired a long time ago?

 

[supermom262]

Jimmy P,

I think you are right in your posts about those of us wanting to relocate being concerned about the schools. I started a thread about it a while back. It is concerning. But more so than this current issue are the school grades, and my recent report from greatschools.com showed Butler down from an A to B and freeport at b or C can't remember. But both are concerning to me. Private school is a good consideration, but those seem limited in the area as well.

I do also know that there are plenty of times that the accused are found innocent; however, as dateline is showing us this stuff is very prevalent.

Hopefully in this case, the kids will get good therapy, and both parents kids, and the administration will learn from it.

Dunelover, check out today's Sun. Bay Elementary and Seaside were among the highest test scores in the state, only 9 other schools in Florida scored higher than Seaside in writing! They have also been 2nd in the state of Florida for all middle schools in Science as well. Butler Elementary was among the highest in math (although I didn't see a chart for Butler.)

Schools are and continue to be improving. It takes many people committed to make this happen and to ask for more for our kids! Many people have left career driven lifestyles behind when they moved here for a chance to be more involved in their children's lives and education, volunteering, mentoring and putting their children's needs first. Change does not happen overnight as we all know, but I believe we are heading in the right direction!

 

[SGB]

Dunelover, check out today's Sun. Bay Elementary and Seaside were among the highest test scores in the state, only 9 other schools in Florida scored higher than Seaside in writing! They have also been 2nd in the state of Florida for all middle schools in Science as well. Butler Elementary was among the highest in math (although I didn't see a chart for Butler.)

Schools are and continue to be improving. It takes many people committed to make this happen and to ask for more for our kids! Many people have left career driven lifestyles behind when they moved here for a chance to be more involved in their children's lives and education, volunteering, mentoring and putting their children's needs first. Change does not happen overnight as we all know, but I believe we are heading in the right direction!

Supermom says it very well - there are more people in the SoWal area involved in the schools and their children's education than I've seen anywhere else. There are MANY people that donate a ton of time (as in full time job) to improve the schools here. It would be very hard to find a more dedicated group. Every day I see the school programs evolving and improving. In the last 5 years, I have never been dissapointed with my children's teachers or education. Athough we were hesitant to move here due to the schools (the high school wasn't here yet), we are very happy we did. Don't let it stop you.

Note that there are many reasons why a school's grade would slip from an A to a B, and as someone mentioned above, in Butler's case, they missed an A last year by just a few points. It is very difficult to get an A rating year after year, and it was due to a couple of students that were behind, not improving their score enough.

It is disheartening to see Coach Cozzie accused of this crime, but unfortunately, remember that this conduct could happen any where and I don't believe it should be a reflection of our school system. In fact, my understanding is that the principal immediately suspended Coach Cozzie as soon as the misconduct was reported to him, which is a good thing. At some schools it would have taken a while for the girls to be believed and for action to be taken.