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Drama program needs teacher
Forsyth schools look for replacement while instructor suspended
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Published: October 22, 2009
Officials with Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools are trying to find a long-term substitute to replace a teacher at Mineral Springs Middle School who was arrested Saturday on charges of sexual misconduct involving a student.
Ralph David Surridge, 57, who teaches drama at the school, was charged with 10 counts of felony sexual misconduct. He was also charged with possession of firearms by a felon.
Surridge has been suspended with pay, school system officials said.
"It's a very difficult time," said Theo Helm, a spokesman for the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school system. "People enjoyed the drama program, and this obviously affects that."
So far this week, a temporary substitute has been teaching his classes.
"If he taught algebra or English, we would follow the same procedure," Helm said of Surridge.
The school system is looking for a longer-term substitute with drama experience, Helm said, and what ultimately happens depends on the outcome of the case.
"If these charges turn out not to be true, we would certainly give him his job back," he said.
Forsyth County sheriff's deputies began investigating Surridge last week after a school-system administrator contacted the sheriff's office to report allegations of an inappropriate relationship between a teacher and a student at Mineral Springs.
Mineral Springs offers a magnet program in the arts, and some students went there because of Surridge and his drama program.
Brad Trogdon of Lewisville said that, after seeing the quality of the theater productions done by Surridge and his students, he and his wife decided to send their daughter, now a 12-year-old seventh-grader, to the school so that she could participate in the theater program.
"It's been nothing but positive in our experience," Trogdon said.
Trogdon said that he and his family were surprised by the charges. "It totally stunned us," he said.
The investigation into the charges of sexual misconduct turned up a 1985 conviction for embezzlement that was missed when the school system did a background check when Surridge was hired seven years ago.
Since then, the system has hired a company to do background checks, and on Tuesday, school officials announced that they would do random checks on 100 to 150 employees to see if other discrepancies show up.
"Our hope and belief is this is an anomaly," Helm said.
kunderwood@wsjournal.com
727-7389
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