Former Satellite High School science teacher and Eastern Florida State College professor Charles Krininger II has pleaded not guilty to sex charges filed in June. His legal challenges mounted on Aug. 1 when his wife petitioned the court for divorce.
Brevard County School District officials also confirm that Krininger is expected to be shifted from paid administrative leave to unpaid leave pending an investigation and the outcome of his criminal case. The question of why college officials were not notified of the allegations still nags, possibly for some sort of solution going forward.
State Attorney Phil Archer’s office secured a warrant for Krininger’s arrest on June 29. He was taken into custody on July 5 and charged with two felony counts of lewd and lascivious conduct and attempted promotion of sexual performance by a child. His bail was set at $30,000 for both counts and he has been out of the Brevard County Jail on bond since July 6.
On July 14, Krininger, through his Cocoa-based attorney Kenneth Rhoden, waived arraignment, entered a plea of not guilty and requested a jury trial. His next day in court is set Oct. 4.
Krininger, 40, of Melbourne, was put on paid administrative leave by the Brevard County School District in February following a student complaint which launched an investigation by the Satellite Beach Police Department.
In an email on Aug. 21, Tina Descovich shared: “Legally we are not able to do anything more than that until charges are officially filed or he is convicted. I believe it will be on our agenda in September to move him to unpaid leave now that he has been officially charged.” Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Carol Kindt has confirmed via a telephone interview on Aug. 22 that Krininger will be moved to unpaid leave.
During the confidential investigation but before his arrest, Krininger continued to teach at the college, where students from Satellite and other area high schools attend dual-enrollment courses.
Descovich also said “the district currently does not have a policy or a system in place to track second employment. I brought up the discussion at a recent school board meeting suggesting maybe we create a procedure to have our teachers report if they are teaching at Eastern Florida State College.
“Some board members said we can’t track all second jobs and where do we draw the line? Aftercares, daycares, Florida Institute of Technology, etc. Legal and human resources had privacy concerns especially since he did not have official charges against him when we put him on leave and we are two separate employers,” Discovich said.
According to an arrest report filed on June 29, 2017, the victim – a Satellite High School student and minor age 16 or under – was told to stay after school by Krininger on Feb. 18 because of some inappropriate comments she made in class. Krininger then allegedly had an inappropriate conversation with her about having sex with her.
Before leaving the room police say Krininger asked her to videotape herself masturbating and post the video to a Dropbox folder that he had put on her cellphone several months earlier.
Records say the student claims Krininger made her “pinky swear” that she would not tell anyone. A series of subpoenas were sent out to identify the IP address and it was later confirmed that the account was owned by the defendant. The IP address accessed the victim’s drop box on two occasions hours after the victim was solicited to post the video.
Krininger taught science at Satellite since 2006. He received a warning once before by principal Mark Elliot in 2013 for making inappropriate and offensive comments to students. Krininger also taught at Space Coast Jr./Sr. High in Port St. John until 2005, before transferring to Satellite High.
