TAVARES, Fla. – A Tavares High School athletic trainer resigned Thursday afternoon, after being accused of providing and drinking alcohol with students at a party in the Ocala National Forest during spring break.
A concerned parent provided the school's principal with a March 12 video, purportedly showing Kyle Rentschler drinking with students. The video also showed Rentschler laughing, joking and wrestling with students, the incident report said.
Rentschler bonded out of jail Thursday and officials announced his resignation the same day.
"He has access to a lot of young people, young students, what else he had in his mind after that, I don't know," said Donald Carrado, who has a granddaughter at the school.
[View: Timeline below of teacher arrests in Central Florida]
The Tavares High School principal contacted deputies on Monday to identify some of the students in the video.
The school board spoke to Rentschler Monday, who told them he received a call that one of the students, saying they were "intoxicated, extremely tired, and needed a ride home" from a party.
He told them that he had a friend drive him to the party and encouraged party-goers to go home. Also, he told them he was only there for 15 to 20 minutes.
Deputies questioned one of the students on Tuesday, who broke down crying and told them, "I don't want Kyle to lose his job," the incident report said.
The student told deputies that he drove to another student's house where they met up and drove separately to the Winn Dixie store off Highway 19 in Eustis. Deputies said Rentschler met several students at the store and left with two bags of alcohol. The student told deputies that Rentschler got in his car to drive to the party in Paisley and left his own car at the store's parking lot.
At some point during the night, the party was out of alcohol, and Rentschler then asked another student to drive him to another store to purchase more alcohol, deputies said.
Rentschler had been employed by the county for four years.
“(He) has had no employee disciplinary issues during that time," Lake County Schools spokeswoman Sherri Owens told News 6.
The district said that Rentschler was reassigned to a work location away from students on Monday. Students returned to school from spring break Tuesday and he did not have any contact with kids this week. He resigned on Thursday.
School officials would not say would happen to the students involved, citing privacy reasons.
Deputies said the parents of the students in the video have been notified.
The students were interviewed by Lake County School Board’s investigation team.
Rentschler was arrested on Wednesday for three counts of selling, giving, serving alcohol to a person under 21 and two counts of contributing to delinquency or dependency of a child.
He is set to appear in court on April 12.