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WINSTON-SALEM (MCT) — Even if a drama teacher at Mineral Springs Middle School who is charged with sexual misconduct is cleared of the charges, he could still lose his job, school officials said Thursday.

The teacher, Ralph David Surridge, 57, was charged with 10 counts of felony sexual misconduct. He was also charged with possession of firearms by a felon.

At the moment, school officials are letting the law-enforcement investigation run its course, said Drew Davis, the attorney for Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools. However, being cleared of those charges would not necessarily mean that Surridge could return to the classroom.

"He could be acquitted of the charges, and because of other issues, his employment could not be continued," Davis said. He declined to comment on what those other issues might be. "The other issues are personnel matters," he said.

One issue could be whether Surridge included false information on his application. When teachers apply for a job, they are asked whether they have been convicted of a felony. In 1985, Surridge was convicted for embezzlement.

That fact, which was missed when the school system did a background check on Surridge seven years ago, showed up after Forsyth County sheriff's deputies began investigating him last week after a school-system administrator reported allegations of an inappropriate relationship between a teacher and a student at Mineral Springs.

Whether false information on an application would be grounds for firing an employee depends on its nature. The accidental transposition of numbers in an address wouldn't be a problem, Davis said. After saying that he could not comment about whether Surridge put false information on his application, he did say, "I think it's safe to say, if an employee lies about a felony conviction, we would not continue that employee's employment."

School officials have said that even if they had known about the embezzlement conviction, it's possible that Surridge would have been hired.

Surridge has been suspended with pay, school-system officials said.

In the time since Surridge was hired, the system has hired a company to do background checks, and on Tuesday, school officials said they would do random checks on 100 to 150 employees to see if other discrepancies show up.