POPULAR PRINCIPAL ARRESTED IN DRUG BUST

He Set Up Deal On The Job, Police Say

"We Tell Them That People That We Love Can And Do Make Bad Choices"
- Tracy Schatzberg, Supervisor of school psychological services,
whose counselors will talk to students today.

TAMPA - Undercover police officers were in place around the lobby of
Van Buren Middle School just before school got out Thursday, They
posed as parents. Their target was inside the principal's office.

The officers were focused on the popular principal who, they say,
arranged a meeting with a bogus drug dealer to buy crack cocaine in
his office. The deal was made as students milled about in nearby hallways.

But in the principal's office, events unfolded that made it Principal
Tony Giancola's worst day. When he bought the crack cocaine, police
said, he dropped another bomb. He told the undercover officer that he
was going to smoke the rock right then and there.

"He said that he wanted to hit it," Tampa police spokeswoman Laura
McElroy said.

The officer responded by saying he was uncomfortable with that.
Whatever the gray-haired, goateed, 40-year-old principal wanted to do
after he left was up to him. When Giancola escorted the undercover
officer into the lobby to say goodbye, the other officers swept in.

McElroy said the arrest was as discreet as possible.

"We created the least commotion as possible for the students," she
said. He was whisked out of the school and away from the students who
affectionately call him Mr. G; from students he occasionally fed
pizzas, paid for out of his own pocket; from the needy students he
bought yearbooks for.

Giancola was taken to the police District 2 office, a few blocks east
of the school, and shuttled to a jail cell. When he was walked to an
idling patrol car, a throng of reporters asked him what he had to say
to his colleagues, to his teachers, to the students.

"I'm very sorry," he said as he climbed into the back seat, hands
bound behind him, a gray sport coat draped over his shoulders.

School officials say Giancola won't be back.

"We are being told the principal is resigning," Hillsborough County
school district Superintendent MaryEllen Elia said late Thursday. "We
are in full support of the position the police took in handling this."

"I'm very disappointed and upset," Elia said. "Obviously it's
unacceptable. Everything that can be done will be done relative to
charges. I'm extremely disappointed."

Addiction Began With Marriage Trouble

McElroy said the department's narcotics squad got a tip - not from
within the school - about Giancola buying crack cocaine and approached
him with a proposition.

Initially, Giancola wanted to purchase $200 worth of crack Thursday
night, but something came up, McElroy said.

He changed the meeting to 3 p.m. Thursday at his office, the
spokeswoman said. The undercover officer said he would only bring a
$20 rock.

Giancola assured the officer that it was no problem meeting in his
office, McElroy said. "He said, 'I feel safe in here; I feel secure.'"

He was charged with possession of crack cocaine, possession of
marijuana, and solicitation to purchase cocaine on school property,
which could add three years to a prison sentence if Giancola is
convicted, McElroy said.

He was released on $10,000 bail late Thursday.

Giancola told officers he slipped into crack cocaine addiction a
couple of months ago after experiencing marital problems, police said.
His wife, Andrea, 36, is a comprehensive science teacher at Monroe
Middle School, according to school records.

"He said he is having a lot of personal problems right now and that in
December, he tried crack cocaine and became addicted," McElroy said.
The principal was smoking $300 to $400 of crack cocaine a day, she
said.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement records show no arrests for
Giancola. Court records do not list him in any civil actions. Property
appraiser records in Pinellas County show him living at 1406 Tyrone
Blvd. N. in St. Petersburg with his wife. A woman who came to the door
Thursday night did not want to comment.

Reaction to the arrest could be described in one word:
disbelief.

Karen Bierce, who worked in the Van Buren Middle School cafeteria
until about three weeks ago, was shocked by the news.

"No way," she said Thursday evening. "He was a good principal. I don't
believe that. ... He worked really well with the kids."

Bierce said Giancola was professional, and morale at the school was
"wonderful."

"There used to be a lot of fights and stuff, and he got rid of a lot
of riffraff," she said. "He did not tolerate that in schools."

But, she said, Giancola was compassionate and didn't just kick
students out of school when they misbehaved.

"He was fantastic," said Daniel Guerra, who teaches English at the
school. "That's all I really have to say."

Tracy Schatzberg, supervisor of school psychological services, said
crisis teams would go today to Van Buren, on North 22nd Street south
of Busch Boulevard, and the Dorothy Thomas Exceptional Center, where
Giancola previously worked.

"They have a lot of questions, and it will be questions of how
somebody they trust can do something like this," Schatzberg said. "We
tell them that people that we love can and do make bad choices."

Arrest In Front Of Students Called 'Cruel'

Some students described Giancola as friendly and caring, holding pep
rallies and buying pizza for the students for no particular reason.

"Our last principal was nice, but Mr. G was even better," seventh-
grader Djakobi Brown said. "He paid for our yearbooks because a lot of
the kids couldn't afford them, and he really wanted us to have one."

Some parents were upset that Giancola was arrested on the school
campus and escorted out in front of students shortly before Van
Buren's dismissal time.

"I can't believe they would humiliate him like that," said Shannon
Bischel, a parent of a seventh-grader. "We all make mistakes, and to
embarrass him like that is cruel considering all he's done for the
school."

Bischel said Giancola helped counsel her daughter, Courtney, through
difficulties at school.

Van Buren Assistant Principal Allison Edgecomb, daughter of school
board member Doretha Edgecomb, will lead the school until a new
principal is appointed. Letters will be sent home to parents today. A
scheduled pep rally to prepare for next week's Florida Comprehensive
Assessment Test will take place, school district spokesman Steve
Hegarty said.

Giancola graduated in 1990 from the University of South Florida with a
bachelor's degree in physical education. He received a master's degree
in education of emotionally handicapped students.

He taught emotionally handicapped children in 1991 at Young Middle
School and continued working with special education students at
Jefferson High in 1997. Two years later, he was appointed as a
coordinator at James Exceptional Center and five years later became
site administrator at Dorothy Thomas, where his work earned praise
from Hillsborough County Children's Services.

Giancola also had glowing reviews in his personnel file, saying he is
"dedicated ... and willing to go the extra mile."

Some students worried how the arrest will affect the school's
reputation.

"People already think we're a bad school," 11-year-old Cassy Estera
said. "Now, no one will want to come here."

The news of the arrest changed at least one parent's mind.

"I'm looking around the area and was going to send my children here,
but that's not going to happen now," Ed Kimbrough said. "This man has
made poor decisions that will affect these children. This principal
was a mentor to the children, and he has disappointed them."

Reporters Michele Sager, Stephen Thompson, Elaine Silvestrini, Valerie
Kalfrin and Marilyn Brown contributed to this report.