AD Arrested in Voyeurism Case Resigns

The former athletic director at Palm Beach Gardens High School will resign following his arrest this week on a video voyeurism charge, the Palm Beach County School District said Thursday.

Bill Weed's resignation is effective June 5, when his contract with the school district expires. He has been with the district for 22 years and has worked since 2006 at Gardens High as a teacher, cross-country coach and director of its sports programs. He was removed from its campus on Military Trail shortly after Palm Beach Gardens police began their investigation in mid-February.

Weed, 50, is accused of watching a child for about a year through a camera hidden inside a clock in the child's bedroom. According to police records, investigators found a memory card inside the camera with 35 pictures and 149 videos on it. Some of the images show the child in various stages of undress, including a few in which the child is fully nude, city police said.

Repeated attempts by The Palm Beach Post to contact Weed for comment since the allegations arose this past month have been unsuccessful, and it was unknown Thursday whether he has hired an attorney.

Related: HS Athletic Director Target of Exploitation Investigation

Weed denied to Palm Beach Gardens police that he knew a camera was inside the clock, although video footage reportedly shows him adjusting the camera with his smartphone in his hand. The application to access the camera was visible on Weed's phone, and the camera only takes still photos if manually directed to do so through the application, said city police, who found dozens of photos of the child on the camera.

What effect Weed's resignation would have on his ability either to teach or coach students in other districts was unclear Thursday.

A spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Education in Tallahassee would not speak specifically about Weed's case, but said the department's Office of Professional Practices Services investigates allegations of misconduct by a certified educator upon receiving a complaint from a public school district, private school, charter school or other source.

Discipline can range from probation to the permanent revocation of a teaching certificate, according to the department's website. The state also could rule that no discipline is necessary.

No criminal court hearings had been scheduled in Weed's case as of late Thursday. Besides the video voyeurism charge, he also faces one of unlawfully using a two-way communication device.

District officials have stressed that the crime of which Weed is accused took place away from the school.

The district reassigned Weed to home duty shortly after his arrest Monday by Palm Beach Gardens police. He was released from the Palm Beach County Jail hours after his arrest on $6,000 bond. At the time of his arrest, Weed lived at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens.

The child learned about the camera after an incident in February in which the clock started to emit static, similar to the noise a baby monitor makes, according to police records. The incident was reported to police, who seized computers and electronic devices from Weed's home, as well as photos, videos and cellphone applications, according to court records.

Weed, who police say gave the child the clock as an unsolicited gift, also appeared to have disabled one phone and reset another prior to police searching the house.

[email protected] Twitter: @JuliusWhigham

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