School sacks teacher - and all Tiffany Shepherd did was strut around on fishing boats as a 'bikini hostess'

A teacher thrown out of her teaching job claims it is because she also works as a "bikini hostess" on fishing trips. Tiffany Shepherd, a biology teacher at Florida's Port St. Lucie High School, has learned she will not be asked to return when school starts next year, nor will she finish this school year. She has accused the St. Lucie County School District of getting rid of her because of her after-school job as a bikini mate on fishing tour boats.

Tiffany Shepherd is no longer teaching, but is available for fishing tours

The 30-year-old blonde from Fort Pierce ? who has a pre-medical degree - performs the usual duties of a ship's mate, but wears a bikini and fetches drinks and sandwiches for the men on board.

She took the job three weeks ago to help support her three young sons following a divorce.

"I can make $600 [£300] in two days' fishing," she said. "That's a week's pay for me." Smokin' Em Charters, a Port St. Lucie-based company, has pictures of some of the bikini mates on its website - many of them partially nude - and says the only job requirement is to look "hot in a bikini".

Ms Shepherd, who said she does not go topless on the fishing boat, said she doesn't believe the job is inappropriate or at odds with her role as a teacher to high school students.

"You don't wear jeans or slacks to go fishing," she said. "I wasn't doing anything wrong."

Officials said suggestive photos of Ms Shepherd on the Smokin' Em website could have posed a problem because they could undermine her effectiveness.

Tiffany as she appears on the fishing tour website

But they insist Ms Shepherd's boat job is nothing to do with their decision to let her go ? and that she has missed more than 30 days of school this year.

"She just doesn't come to work," said Susan Ranew, assistant human resources chief for the district. "We did not know about her second job until after she received her notice of non-renewal."

Ms Shepherd, who said she thinks she missed about 20 days this year, claimed another teacher at Port St. Lucie High had missed three quarters of a year for a stomach ulcer but was reappointed the following year.

Her absences, she said, are "not the reason they let me go now. It's Smokin' Em Charters."

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