Aide in Steroid Case to Resign in Settlement

A Carlsbad High School teacher’s aide has agreed to resign in the wake of his trial on charges of selling steroids to three students, which ended in a hung jury last month.

In a tentative settlement between Gregory Tirona and the Carlsbad Union School District, Tirona agreed to resign and the district agreed to pay him a cash settlement he said is “in five figures.”

The school board will decide today in closed session whether to ratify the settlement, which was reached Monday. The amount of cash involved will become public if the agreement is approved, school officials said.

Negotiations began a few days after the board’s decision to fire Tirona, according to the district’s lawyer, Dick Hamilton, who prepared the settlement document.

Tirona, 31, was fired Feb. 28 but had 30 days to appeal the dismissal to a school personnel board.

He was 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 jury hung 11 to 1 in favor of acquittal last month.

“I’m pleased with the settlement,” Tirona said. “I think it’s the best for all parties involved to wash my hands of it, including them washing their hands of it. Apparently this is something the district wanted to do just to end it.”

Tirona, who worked at Carlsbad High School for four years, said he has been offered a job as a basketball coach at a rival high school. Whether or not he accepts will depend on how it affects his job at a Long Beach freight company, he said.