Decision on Touron punishment may come next week

Immokalee High School Principal Manny Touron might have to wait until next week to learn what possible punishment might be in store for him.

Collier schools Superintendent Ray Baker met with Touron and Assistant Superintendent Eric Williams on Thursday to go over Wednesday’s ruling by the Florida High School Athletic Association. Five over-age students participated in soccer at the high school. One of the five also played on the football team.

Those sanctions include paying a $3,000 fine — $1,000 for each of the students originally found to be over-age — as well as barring the Immokalee football team from the playoffs for next season and the boys soccer team for two seasons, and requiring the school to forfeit two district soccer titles and one district football title.

“It was an opportunity for me to ask some questions. There were a lot of complex issues in this whole situation, which occurred over a long period of time,” Baker said, adding he was ready to move forward with a decision about possible punishment for Touron.

Baker said any possible action taken against Touron would be determined by the end of next week.

Touron couldn’t be reached for comment Thursday.

Touron admitted he was informed in October that Josh Jean-Mary was 23 years old.

In an e-mail to Williams, the assistant superintendent for secondary schools, Touron said he was informed of the first incident in October. Cpl. Josh Pence, the youth resource officer at Immokalee High School, found that Josh Jean-Mary, 23, was posing as a student.

Another student, 19-year-old David Boyer, told Pence he was being harassed by a student who was 24. When Pence approached the student, “(he) was slow to admit his true age,” according to reports.

In his report, Pence said he ran Jean-Mary’s name through the state system and found he was 23 years old.

According to the report, Pence “informed Mr. Manny Touron, principal of Immokalee High School that (the man) had a Florida driver’s license that listed him as 23 years of age. Also, I informed the school administration that there could be several students who are not using their true date of birth.”

Touron wrote in the e-mail, dated May 5, that he had been given the information from Pence and was told by Pence to do whatever he thought was right.

Jean-Mary was removed from school in May for being too old.

“This was Jean-Mary’s senior year and he worked hard to get where he was. I have known Jean-Mary as he was a former soccer player of mine and couldn’t play this year due to age ineligibility according to his records on terms. I decided to keep him until the end of the year so he could graduate and become a productive citizen. Maybe this was a poor choice on my part,” he wrote.

Touron has said he will step down from his coaching duties with Immokalee High School’s boys soccer team as a result of the incident.

Touron will meet with reporters at 9 a.m. today at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Administrative Center, 5775 Osceola Trail, in Naples.

Immokalee High School has 10 business days to appeal any part or all of the FHSAA’s decision on sanctions. Baker said Thursday that Touron would have to make that decision.

“It is the school that belongs to the FHSAA, so it is the school and Mr. Touron that have the authority to appeal,” he said.