Update/11:40 a.m.: Officials at the Board of Education now report 17 schools with over $14,000 tied up with Odyssey LLC.

Update: This company has scheduled appearances with no shows in other school districts.

What was supposed to be a lesson in building character and anti-bullying for county students backfired for a growing number of schools when an Annapolis company failed to produce the celebrity guest—a professional athlete—to their planned school assemblies.

According to school officials, as of Wednesday, a total of 16 county elementary, middle and high schools were left with no professional athlete to talk to the students on the topic of character building and anti-bullying—putting the county out $13,000, according to Bob Mosier, Anne Arundel County Public Schools spokesman.

Severna Park Middle School (SPMS) paid $1,950 to the Odyssey Group LLC of Annapolis, to have Baltimore Raven cornerback Lardarius Webb be a guest speaker at their anti-bullying assemblies. The school canceled the assembly a few days before Webb was scheduled to make an appearance on Oct. 11 when SPMS administrators learned that other guest speakers hadn't shown up at other schools as promised by the Odyssey Group. 

Other schools paid between $500 and $1,950 to Odyssey LLC to book an appearance by either Webb or another unnamed Baltimore Ravens player. As of late Wednesday, the list of schools owed a refund was continuing to grow:

Middle Schools: Severna Park, Arundel, George Fox, Central, Crofton and Lindale.

Elementary Schools: Crofton Meadows, Mayo, Rippling Woods, Central, Riviera Beach, Severn, Fort Smallwood, Richard Henry Lee and Phoenix Annapolis.

High School: Arundel High School

"It's not the schools' fault and not the players' fault," said Mosier, adding that the appearances are not booked through nor have any involvement with the Baltimore Ravens organization.

A letter sent to the affected schools on Oct. 7 from Trunnell Law, LLC in Crofton, explained that their client, Joseph Gill of Odyssey Group LLC, was not able to fullfill the obligation. However, the law office is no longer representing Gill. “We did represent him [Gill] for a short period of time in October. We are not representing Mr. Gill or Odyssey any longer, Matthew Skipper of Trunnell Law, LLC said on Wednesday.

According to the letter attached as a PDF to this article, Gill formed a relationship with a booking agent for the Baltimore Ravens but didn't anticipate such a positive response from county schools. The schedule quickly filled up with promises to the schools of Baltimore Ravens players to visit for assemblies—while the working relationship with the booking agent disintegrated.

"We are working now to assess how many schools are involved and the options that are available to help the schools reclaim that money," said Mosier. "That’s where we are at the moment."

Mosier said that some schools, like SPMS, were promised Webb while others were promised nonspecific players. Some schools paid first and then were reimbursed by their PTSO, said Mosier.

"This was a venture on the part of the schools to provide character lessons for students. It is very disappointing that it ended up the way it did," Mosier said. "We like to have community partners involved with the students. They were the ones who lost in this situation. Our effort at this point is to examine the ways we can help those schools and parent groups recoup the money.” 

“We can’t undo the disappointment of children who have missed out on these assemblies, but our schools deserve to be made whole so that there isn’t a double penalty of losing this opportunity and the funds to put on future programs like it that benefit so many students,” wrote Mosier in an email.

The Board of Education's Office of Legal Services is working on the case.