The drama teacher at Mineral Springs Middle School who was arrested this weekend on charges of sexual misconduct with a student may have lied on his employment application, Superintendent Don Martin said yesterday.
Ralph David Surridge, 57, of 2295 Jay Dee Drive in Winston-Salem was arrested by the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office on Saturday on 10 counts relating to sexual misconduct. Charges of possession of a firearm by a felon were added Sunday. He is in the Forsyth County Jail with bond set at $2 million.
Martin said that Surridge has been suspended with pay until the school system finishes its investigation.
He had been convicted of embezzlement in New Hanover County in 1985 and was sentenced to six months in prison and three years probation, according to court records.
Every school-system employee and volunteer is subject to criminal background checks. When school officials did the background check, it showed that he was found not guilty on a charge of forgery and uttering, Martin said.
Martin said during a news conference that Surridge would never have been hired if school officials had known Surridge was convicted of a felony. Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools now contracts with Public Data Works, which does a more thorough background check.
Deputies began investigating Surridge on Thursday 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.
Authorities said that the charges made Saturday all stem from incidents with one student, who is female. Maj. Brad Stanley of the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office said that the incidents took place within the past month. He did not know what grade the student was in. He said yesterday that the investigation is continuing.
The charges include five counts of indecent liberties with a child, three counts of taking indecent liberties with a student and one count each of sexual offense with a student and statutory sexual offense with a minor. All of these charges are felonies.
Stanley would not say whether the incidents happened at Mineral Springs Middle School.
Surridge had worked for the school system for seven years, all of them at Mineral Springs, and Martin said that Surridge was a popular teacher. He had not had any complaints of inappropriate relationships with students before these allegations, Martin said.
The school system has had a number of cases of sexual abuse by teachers over the past 10 years, the most prominent involving Robert Williams Watson Jr., who pleaded guilty in 2007 to committing 32 sex acts with 10 boys while a teacher in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school system. He is serving 15 to 19 years in prison.
Martin said yesterday that if the charges against Surridge are true, they represent a breach of what school officials expect of teachers.
"We take the safety and welfare of our students very seriously, and this type of behavior will not be tolerated," he said.
mhewlett@wsjournal.com.
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