Middle school teacher under investigation

BY JILLIAN McCARTNEY & BRAD A. HODGES
SALISBURY POST

A third Rowan County teacher has been suspended with pay and is part of a criminal investigation.

Howard “Trey” Coffie III, a seventh-grade teacher at Erwin Middle School, has been “suspended with pay pending an investigation,” according to school records. School officials would not comment further.

Rowan County Sheriff’s Department officials confirmed this morning that they are conducting an investigation of Coffie but would not comment on the nature of the inquiry. Coffie has not been charged.

“I probably should not comment at this time,” Coffie said this morning.

Coffie, 33, attended Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla., before coming to Erwin Middle two years ago.

He is the third teacher to come under under investigation by a law enforcement agency since mid-May, all in unrelated cases. Rowan-Salisbury Schools officials suspended each of the teachers with pay in the past two weeks.

Angie Waddell, a math teacher and basketball coach at West Rowan High School, was suspended May 19. The Sheriff’s Department has confirmed an investigation in this case, but she has not been charged.

Jason Lee Randolph Shafer, a fifth-grade teacher at Landis Elementary, was arrested last week and charged with third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor.

The State Bureau of Investigation conducted a search of Shafer’s home and is continuing its investigation this week. Shafer is scheduled to appear in court June 6.

Contact reporters at 704-633-8950 or newsroom@salisburypost.com .