Ex-teacher gives up teaching in deal

The former teacher also is barred from contact with school-age males.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- A former Fitch High School teacher accused of using a computer to solicit a male student for sex surrendered his teaching certificate as part of a plea agreement.
The trial of William R. Iagulli, 50, of Rockwell Road, was to start Wednesday in Mahoning County Court on misdemeanor charges of telecommunications harassment and soliciting.
Instead Iagulli, an Austintown teacher for 25 years, pleaded guilty to both charges before Judge Diane Vettori.
As part of the plea, Iagulli surrendered his Ohio teaching certificate, an action that officials said also prohibits him from teaching in other states. He is barred from contact with grade school and high school age males and from attending public school activities on school grounds except for activities in which his niece, a student in the Poland school district, is participating.
"He surrendered his teaching certificate and that was a major concern for the police department, the school board and the prosecutor's office," said Detective Sgt. Ray Holmes, who investigated the case.
Thinking of victim
Both Holmes and Kenneth Cardinal, an assistant Mahoning County prosecutor, said that not wanting to put the victim, now a 19-year-old man, through testifying at trial was a chief motivator in devising the plea.
The victim was an 18-year-old Fitch student when the crimes occurred.
Judge Vettori suspended a six-month jail sentence on the condition that Iagulli complies with the conditions of the plea, which also includes 24 months of reporting probation. Iagulli was fined $250 on each count.
Iagulli declined to make a statement before the judge, but Atty. John B. Juhasz, who represented him, said not having a trial spares many people pain.
"A trial would have put a lot of people through a lot of emotional heartache," the attorney said.
He resigned
Schools Superintendent Doug Heuer declined to comment, pointing out that Iagulli is no longer an employee of the school system. The longtime social studies teacher, former president of the teachers union and girls track coach submitted his resignation last week, effective Tuesday.
Michael Creatore, school board president, said an end to the case allows the district to move on.
"I'm glad it's over," he said. "We as a school district can now put this behind us."
Holmes said the case demonstrates that parents need to pay attention to their children's computer activities. He said the police department is organizing a seminar planned in the next several weeks to inform parents about what to look for.
An April 2005 e-mail correspondence between Iagulli and the student that was part of the case shows the teacher offering the student money for a sex act.
Iagulli was charged in May.
How it was discovered
The activity first came to the police department's attention in early 2005 when a message was left on the school district's Help Hotline saying that a teacher was involved with four students, the detective said. The caller listed only first names and police didn't have enough information to move forward, he said.
A witness's knowledge of the e-mail correspondence and parents' cooperation led police to pursue a search warrant of Iagulli's computer. The teacher turned himself in to police before the search.