Franklin County hoop coach charged with battery
Franklin County boys basketball coach Ray Bailey, who amassed an 80-57 record over the last five seasons, including a trip to the Class 1A Final Four, has been suspended from his job at the school following an incident in the gym that led to his being charged with a misdemeanor count of battery.
Bailey, 39, of Sopchoppy was arrested by the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office May 14 following an investigation that included a school video of the incident in which Bailey is alleged to have struck a student in his middle school physical education class.
Superintendent Steve Lanier said the student went to a teacher immediately after the incident happened, and the information was relayed to Principal Danielle Rossen. The principal contacted the Department of Children and Families and later the sheriff’s office was brought in to review a video of the incident.
Lanier said Bailey admitted to human resources that he had struck the girl in what Lanier described as being “backhanded on the thigh above the knee.” The superintendent said the contact had not been an intentionally hard hit, but that the swipe left a red mark.
As a long term substitute, Bailey was immediately suspended without pay as the investigation continued.
According to a probable cause affidavit filed by Lt. Steve James, the student, age 14, was seated in a roller chair when they accidentally bumped into a podium where Bailey had placed his cell phone and his ear buds, and they were knocked off, falling to the floor.
Bailey bent down to pick them up, and as he stood back up, “he slapped the student on the right thigh, causing a red imprint of his handprint,” wrote James.
James said Bailey was read his Miranda rights and voluntarily gave a statement to law enforcement, the contents of which were redacted from the affidavit.
Lanier said Bailey’s future with the district will be decided by the school board.
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David Adlerstein, The Apalachicola Times’ digital editor, started with the news outlet in January 2002 as a reporter.
Prior to then, David Adlerstein began as a newspaperman with a small Boston weekly, after graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He later edited the weekly Bellville Times, and as business reporter for the daily Marion Star, both not far from his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
In 1995, he moved to South Florida, and worked as a business reporter and editor of Medical Business newspaper. In Jan. 2002, he began with the Apalachicola Times, first as reporter and later as editor, and in Oct. 2020, also began editing the Port St. Joe Star.