A male teacher at North Marion High School in Florida was suspended for three days without pay after allegedly touching a female student with a banana, according to Ocala.com.
Jonathan Hampton, who teaches advanced, college-level courses at the high school was lecturing on the Freudian implications of Ken Kensey’s 1962 novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” when he allegedly used the banana to contact the student’s head.
On May 6th, three months after the incident allegedly occurred, the parents of the unidentified female student reported the incident to the school after their daughter had apparently claimed that it made her feel uncomfortable. It is unclear why the family waited so long to report the incident.
According to the teacher’s May 13th discipline letter, he “rubbed a student’s head and neck area with a banana” during a class discussion on “cylinder objects, phalluses and/or sex symbols.”
“That is disgusting, very disgusting,” Dale Johnson, a grandmother of a student at the high school told WKMG Local 6. “I don’t think he should be allowed to teach kids. You don’t do stuff like that and get away with it.”
Hampton refused to speak with local media but his attorney, Mark Fiedelholtz, who also happens to be his stepfather, denied the allegations.
In response to the report released on Saturday by WKMG Local 6, Mr. Fiedelholtz said that Hampton “doesn’t recall ever touching the student with a banana, but if he did it would be to get their attention.”
According to Ocala.com, he went on to add, “There was nothing else to it.”
The unidentified female student is not the only one to call the teacher’s behavior into question, however.
In the discipline letter sent to Hampton, the school district also stated that there have been other students who have found that his topics have been borderline inappropriate with “excessive frequency, causing discomfort to many of his students.”
Hampton has been a teacher at North Marion High School since 2007 and according to his Facebook, and other than some negative comments made online in 2009 about students and fellow staff members, has been an “outstanding teacher,” He even won the teacher of the year award in 2011-2012, according personnel records collected by WKMG.
His suspension has since been completed and he has returned to class.
Watch WKMG’s report below:
