Charter School Dean Accused Of Giving Babysitter Drugs, Alcohol

PALM HARBOR, FL — Pinellas County sheriff's detectives have arrested the dean of a Clearwater charter school and his wife after they were accused of providing alcohol and marijuana to their teen babysitter when she was caring for their twin children.

Detectives began their investigation on Dec. 29 after the sheriff's office received a complaint that 37-year-old Misty Mitchell-Thayer and her husband, 38-year-old Adam Thayer, were providing alcohol and marijuana to a 17-year-old girl and her friends at their home in the 930 block of Winding Oaks Drive in Palm Harbor.

The 17-year-old was the babysitter for the Thayers' twin children, who are now 7 years old.

Adam Thayer is the dean of students at the Pinellas Academy for Math and Science, a charter school at 1775 S. Highland Ave., Clearwater.

Through their investigation, detectives said they verified that the Thayers provided alcoholic beverages and marijuana to the teen babysitter on 30 to 40 occasions over the past two years and then left her alone to care for their two children.

The teen told detectives she would consume alcohol each time she babysat for the Thayers while the couple went to local bars to drink. She said the Thayers would usually return home after midnight.

Since she was 15 years old when she began babysitting the Thayers' twins, who were then 5 years old, she told detectives that she would get "pretty drunk" at times and have slurred speech and blurry vision. She told detective that she would not have been able to appropriately care for the children in the event of an emergency due to her level of intoxication.

She also told detectives that the Thayers allowed her to drink vodka, whiskey and carbonated alcoholic drinks. On one occasion, she said the Thayers poured her a glass of whiskey to drink before they left their home.

In October, detectives said the teen received a text message from Misty Mitchell-Thayer encouraging her to "Get drunk! Pass the f--- out!" and"If you want to smoke, Adam has weed there."

This and other text messages were recovered from the teen's cell phone. Detectives also discovered the Thayers drank and smoked marijuana with the teen on multiple occasions after returning home intoxicated.

On Thursday, detectives charged Adam Thayer with two counts of child neglect. Misty Mitchell-Thayer was arrested on the same charges Friday.

Patch was unable to reach anyone from the charter school for comment.