MANSFIELD — Two Mansfield Senior High School employees were recently terminated by the Mansfield City Schools Board of Education after allegedly engaging in inappropriate sexual conduct while at school.
Two other teachers were also dismissed at the Dec. 17 board meeting for separate reasons. Richland Source obtained public records from the school district related to each of the four dismissals.
At least three students reported they saw Kristy Diaz and Brandon Hensley allegedly having sexual intercourse during the Nov. 13 school day, according to hand-written statements by the students placed in the employees’ personnel files. The employees were placed on paid leave later that day and fired at the next regularly scheduled board meeting, 24 business days later.
According to Hensley’s attorney, William Steele of Columbus, Hensley and Diaz were in a relationship that was well known in the building. He said he thought they had been together for about a year.
“As far as the allegation there was a sex act in the classroom during the school day, my client (Hensley) emphatically denies it,” said Steele. “To say he was engaged in a sex act in his classroom is preposterous.”
Attorney Grant D. Shoub of Columbus, who is representing Diaz, did not return multiple phone calls seeking comment.
Hensley was an intervention specialist at the high school. Diaz was a high school building secretary. They were placed on paid administrative leave Nov. 13.
In a letter recommending termination, Superintendent Stan Jefferson documented multiple counts of inappropriate behavior, starting Oct. 28, 2019, when a student observed them kissing at Diaz’s desk, to Nov. 13, 2019, when Hensley and Diaz were seen kissing in front of at least two students. There were 12 documented incidents between the two.
“On Nov. 11, 2019 at approximately 11:04 a.m., you had sexual intercourse with co-worker Brandon Hensley in room 1316 at Mansfield Senior High School,” the superintendent wrote in a letter to Diaz dated Dec. 16. “This was witnessed by at least two students.”
Two hand-written witness statements by students give various details of the Nov. 11 incident.
Hensley was hired into the district in 2003 as a middle school site coordinator at Simpson Middle School. Diaz was hired as a secretary in 2013.
Richland Source also examined documents related to the termination of two other teachers — an in-school intervention teacher at Malabar Intermediate School and an in-school intervention specialist at Senior High.
On Dec. 4, 2019, Bryan Scott Toney allegedly, inappropriately and without cause physically grabbed a student and forcibly threw and/or moved the student about six feet from the walkway to the wall, according to a notice of pre-disciplinary meeting written by Mark Wilcheck, the district director of personnel.
In that letter, Wilcheck said Toney also had also been inappropriately accessing personal and shopping websites during the school day on a district server and district computer.
“I witnessed Mr. Toney take a student by both arms and push him onto the wall,” fifth grade math and science teacher Becki Smith wrote in an email to Wilcheck. “… He asked students to stay on the wall, which some of them did not. One boy was standing between the wall and the bulletin board which is when Mr. Toney asked, ‘What are you doing?’ Mr. Toney then proceeded to place his hands on the boy’s arms and push him with force against the wall. The child had a stunned look on his face when Mr. Toney asked, ‘Did I hurt you?’ The boy said ‘No.'”
Toney was approved for a change in status as an in-school intervention teacher at Malabar Intermediate School on Aug. 13, 2019. He began that assignment on Aug. 20.
In April 2019, Toney received a notice of pre-disciplinary meeting about allegations which stemmed from allowing students to have unstructured free-time and being unsupervised.
“You allowed students to perform wrestling moves on each other,” Wilcheck wrote in the notice. “You made no attempts during the class in question to stop the wrestling and it does not appear you speak to the students about wrestling.”
Toney signed a last chance agreement following this incident. It was signed by Jefferson, Toney and Mansfield School Education Association’s president Brad Stong. In the agreement, Toney was “involuntarily transferred” to Malabar Intermediate School as an intervention specialist until at least 2021. Toney also agreed to professional development as directed by the school board.
The last chance agreement also suspended Toney without pay for five days.
Toney was hired in 2005 as a physical education teacher at Carpenter Elementary School. This is his 23rd year in the district, according to his attorney.
Attorney Bob Sauter, said his client was trying to break up a fight when he placed his hands on the student.
“We think this penalty is too severe and he was well-intentioned,” the Columbus-based attorney said.
Connie Burrows was dismissed by the school board for behavior the district saw as insubordination and abandonment of her job.
A notice of pre-disciplinary meeting, written by Wilcheck lists several dates in which Burrows allegedly either left work early or did not come in at all.
“You were directed to work Friday Nov. 15, 2019. You failed to report,” he wrote “…This constitutes repeated insubordination and abandonment of your job.”
Burrows was hired as an intervention specialist in 2007.
“Connie is another long-standing employee of the district,” said Sauter who is representing Burrows. “She didn’t report to work because she was clearly ill. But she also had assumed a new position with the high school.”
According to District Treasurer Robert Kuehnle, Hensley, Toney and Burrows have requested a hearing. Kuehnle said he expected those hearings before the end of the school year.
