CAPE CORAL, Fla. -- A Mariner High School Custodian could be terminated after he was charged with selling opioid pain killers to an undercover officer.
The Superintendent has recommended 47-year-old Daniel Preston be terminated, but his fate within the district will be determined Tuesday afternoon at a School Board Termination Hearing.
Annaliz Gonzalez Bryant, a Senior at Mariner High School, said Preston was always friendly.
"He talks to you; 'Good morning,' 'Good afternoon,'" she said.
She was shocked when she found out what Preston was allegedly doing on the side.
"It's pretty surprising. It's actually kind of terrifying," Gonzalez Bryant said.
The Lee County School Board's petition for termination says Preston sold "prescription pills to undercover detectives on two separate occasions, once in the presence of a minor."
"He does lunch, cafeteria, so he's around us all the time, and he helps with teaching football, so he's around the boys after school, too," Gonzalez Bryant said. "You have to like, I mean, not assume, but there's always that thought - on school campus, maybe after school, so that's really scary."
Preston told Four in Your Corner's Lisa Greenberg over the phone he made a big mistake and is sorry, and that he's going through a diversion program and hoping the charges will be dropped.
He also said he loves working with the kids, and hopes he'll get to keep his job.
"Obviously if he's selling drugs, he shouldn't be working in a position around kids," Espen Taylor, a Senior at Mariner High School, said.
"If you're selling narcotics, no matter what kind they are, you shouldn't be allowed on the campus at all. Around kids whatsoever," Gonzalez Bryant said.
The School Board will be deciding on Preston's termination Tuesday at 2pm.
