Tampa, Florida -- A number of teachers will tell you they were born to be in the classroom. Then there are those who were a little more reluctant and needed a nudge.
Michael Dexter at Jefferson High School in Tampa certainly falls into the latter category. He told me during our talk at Jefferson High School that when someone brought up teaching once before he balked and said he would never do it.
The following is generally what happenes when someone says "never" about something.
Mr. Dexter was completely happy as an undercover narcotics detective in Hillsborough County. It’s a job he had held for 13 years. He said it was his dream job and something he always wanted to do.
Then in an instant, that dream became a nightmare.
One day in 1995, Detective Dexter was in a classroom taking a cultural diversity course when he passed out.
He had suffered a seizure.
Dexter says by all accounts he should be dead. The hospital had a neurosurgeon on standby but Mr. Dexter said he had a coupe of other people by his side that fateful day.
- Michael Dexter, Jefferson High School
- “Fortunately they were able to revive me at the hospital and only by the grace of God I was able to keep all of my faculties. My wife was by my side and my Lord was by my side holding my hand and that is why I am here today.”
Mr. Dexter discovered he had undiagnosed hypertension. It was a condition that forced him to have a kidney transplant. He eventually received one.
But with the doors now slammed on his law enforcement career, the doors of Jefferson High School swung wide open when he learned they needed someone to teach a criminal justice class. Remember, this is the man who said he would never become a teacher.
Now he says he does have one regret about taking the job at Jefferson.
- Michael Dexter, Jefferson High School
- “The only regret I have about teaching is that I didn't do it 13 years ago. I probably would have chosen this over law enforcement had I known what I would be getting into. I love this job.”
Ginger Gadsden, Tampa Bay's 10 News