Teacher Takes Students to Gay Strip Club: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

A really good career move. She says she now has regrets.

The Butler Tech teacher who took four Edgewood High School cheerleaders to a gay strip bar regrets her actions, according to a written apology she sent to school officials.

Marketing teacher Lori Epperson resigned Thursday after being investigated by the career school for taking the girls in February to a Dayton gay bar featuring male dancers.

According to the April 10 letter - obtained by The Enquirer through an Ohio Public Records request - the 37-year-old Epperson apologized and explained what happened that night.

The girls, ages 18 and 17, "wanted to go to a gay establishment," Epperson wrote. "They continued to push the issue and I told them if they were that set on going I would prefer they go with me."

Epperson contended the girls' parents gave permission once she assured them there would be no drinking.

Once there, she wrote, the girls' hands were stamped marking them as underage. However, the girls went upstairs where they were able to get drinks.

"After about 15 minutes, I went to look for them. They had found someone that was a brother of someone they knew. He bought them shots and cosmopolitans - a very strong drink. I told them we're leaving because they disobeyed me by drinking," she recounted.

One of the girls was "found in the bathroom throwing up" and had to be carried by Epperson to the car. She wrote that she "drove them home, lecturing the whole way."

Bill Solazzo, spokesman for Butler Tech, said school officials learned about the incident earlier this month and placed Epperson on paid leave while it investigated.

Paid leave?