FORT PIERCE, FL -- A former Port St. Lucie High School teacher who gained national attention claiming she lost her job because of her moonlighting gig as a bikini-clad worker on a charter fishing boat, spent Sunday night in the St. Lucie County Jail after being arrested for allegedly threatening her former boyfriend’s new girlfriend.
Tiffany Shepherd, 30, was released from the jail about 5 p.m. Monday after posting $1,500 on her $15,000 bail.
According to a Fort Pierce Police Department report, Shepherd was arrested Sunday on a warrant claiming that in late November, she left several text and voice mail messages on the cellphone of a 22-year-old woman now dating and living with the father of one of Shepherd’s children.
Shepherd reportedly challenged the woman to a fight. According to the report, Shepherd has a restraining order against her former boyfriend.
Shepherd, who was listed as unemployed and living in Okeechobee on the arrest report, worked for four years as a science teacher in the St. Lucie County School District before she was told in May she would not be renewed for the next school year.
In local and national media, Shepherd claimed she was dismissed because she had a part-time job serving drinks and food and casting fishing lines for guests aboard Smokin’ Em Charters, which offered trips with bikini-clad and topless women.
District officials said Shepherd was dismissed for "excessive absences," more than 30 unexcused absences during the 2007-08 school year, and two reprimands in her personnel file.
Shepherd did several television interviews about her claim but said she turned down a lucrative offer to appear in Playboy magazine because it could hurt her chances of getting another teaching job.
Shepherd, a mother of three boys, said in late October she had applied for teaching jobs in Martin, Osceola and Okeechobee counties to no avail.
