Teacher’s Aide Linked to Steroid Sales Fired

A Carlsbad teacher’s aide will lose his job, even though criminal charges of selling steroids to students were dismissed.

The Carlsbad Union High School District’s board of trustees agreed in closed session Wednesday night to fire the suspended aide, Gregory Tirona.

Tirona’s suspension will be continued, however, for 30 days. During that time, he may appeal the decision to the personnel commission, which would then hold a termination hearing.

Tirona had been accused of selling steroids to three students from October to December, 1988, after the mother of one of the students found steroids in her son’s possession and alerted school officials. The charges were dismissed after a trial jury deadlocked, 11 to 1 for acquittal.

“The action of the board was that they extended the suspension to give him notice that he will be dismissed at the end of 30 days,” Supt. Thomas Brierly said after the session.

The school board had to act within 10 days of the end of Tirona’s trial, and had two options, school district counsel Dick Hamilton said before the closed session. The other option was to lift Tirona’s suspension.

A termination hearing through the personnel commission, Hamilton said, is significantly different from a trial by jury.

“In the criminal process, the burden of proof is ‘beyond a reasonable doubt,’ ” Hamilton said. A job hearing requires only that the majority of the evidence be against Tirona. In addition, hearsay evidence is allowed at job hearings, but not at trials, he said.

School board members said they could not comment on the Tirona case because it is a confidential personnel matter, but last week board member Ed Switzer said that a personnel commission hearing would be “the ideal situation” because it would allow the school to “consider all the facts.”

“As a board member, I think I have a strong obligation to protect kids, but, by the same token, I don’t want to falsely accuse an employee,” Switzer said.

Tirona, who could not be reached for comment Thursday, had said after his trial that he would like to return to Carlsbad High School, where he had been a teacher’s aide for four years.