Before taking a job as band teacher at H.L. Watkins Middle School in Palm Beach Gardens -- where he would later be accused of raping and molesting eighth-grade students -- Heath Miller worked briefly as a substitute teacher at Glades Central Community High School, his alma mater.
It's unclear from Miller's personnel file exactly when he worked at Glades, but he didn't stay long.
Glades Principal Edward Harris refused to renew Miller's contract because he said
the teacher choreographed "sexually inappropriate and provocative" halftime shows for students to perform at football games.
Harris
came forward with this revelation last September, five months after
Miller was arrested for sexually assaulting several students at
Watkins.
According to an investigative report by Palm Beach County
School District Detective Vinny Mintus, Miller directed a show at
Glades in which "heavyset" young women wearing skimpy "underwear-type
garments" would bend over, "spread their legs and gyrate." They
performed these dance moves with other female students lying directly
underneath them, Harris told Mintus.
Harris said he was disturbed by this "booty dancing." But when he asked Miller to tone down the choreography, the music teacher came back a week later with an even more provocative show.
Yet Harris' concerns never appeared in Miller's personnel file. He was hired at Watkins in 2005 after receiving glowing reviews from his supervisors at his previous job, as a music teacher at Lake Shore Middle School.
"Mr. Miller shows much enthusiasm and energy as he teaches his students," one supervisor wrote. "He is to be commended for the fine performance of his students."
