Kansas Rep. Mark Samsel charged with battery after physical altercation with student

[Edge-]

https://www.kansas.com/news/politics...WEcm7A6MbK54XE

Kansas state Rep. Mark Samsel was arrested and charged with misdemeanor battery on Thursday after getting into a physical altercation with a student while substitute teaching in Wellsville.

Samsel, 36, was booked into the Franklin County Adult Detention Center after 3:30 p.m. Thursday. He has since been released on $1,000 bond, Sheriff Jeff Richards said.

Superintendent Ryan Bradbury said that Samsel will no longer be allowed to work for the district.

On Wednesday, Samsel, R-Wellsville, was substitute teaching at the Wellsville school district’s secondary school. Throughout the day, high school students began recording videos of the lawmaker talking about suicide, sex, masturbation, God and the Bible.

In one video shared with The Star, Samsel tells students about “a sophomore who’s tried killing himself three times,” adding that it was because “he has two parents and they’re both females.”

“He’s a foster kid. His alternatives in life were having no parents or foster care parents who are gay,” Samsel tells students. “How do you think I’m going to feel if he commits suicide? Awful.”

In another video, Samsel is recorded telling students, “make babies. Who likes making babies? That feels good, doesn’t it? Procreate. ... You haven’t masturbated? Don’t answer that question. ... God already knows.”

Videos shared with The Star show Samsel focusing most of his attention on one male student. Both Samsel and the student paced around the classroom, talking back and forth. Samsel is shown following the student around and grabbing him. In one video, he puts his arms around the student and says that he was being hard on him.

At one point, Samsel tells the student, “You’re about ready to anger me and get the wrath of God.” He then pushes him.

In another video, he tells students, “Class, you have permission to kick him in the balls.”

Parents told The Star that Samsel “put hands on the student” and allegedly kneed him in the crotch. In a video apparently taken immediately after the incident, the student is shown laying on the ground. Samsel is standing over him and says, “did it hurt?”

He then asks him why he is about to start crying, pats him on the shoulder and apologizes, and then says he can “go to the nurse, she can check it for you.”

Samsel addresses another student and says, “do you want to check his nuts for him, please?”

The videos angered dozens of parents, who felt that their children were put in danger. Samsel works with students in several capacities, including as a referee and through church groups, parents said.

“I’m a concerned parent who doesn’t want this swept under the rug,” said father Joshua Zeck. “He’s around kids all the time. He’s a state representative. He’s in a position of power.”

Zeck said that he felt Samsel was “bullying” the student.

In a message to families, Bradbury said that the situation is being investigated.

“Student safety has and always will be our first priority,” he said.

Samsel is the second Kansas lawmaker to be arrested this year. Former Senate Majority Leader Gene Suellentrop, a Wichita Republican, was charged with felony eluding and fleeing from police and also faces misdemeanor charges of drunk and reckless driving after allegedly driving the wrong way on Topeka highways on March 16. He was forced to step down from his leadership post.

On Twitter, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas posted: “What the hell is going on with the #KSLEG this session?” He added that Samsel “shouldn’t just be terminated from substituting. He should be blocked from being around all kids.”

The district reported the incident, and an investigation was conducted by the Wellsville Police Department and Franklin County Sheriff’s Office. After the investigation, Samsel was arrested for misdemeanor battery, according to a news release.

In a Snapchat post shared with The Star, Samsel wrote that “it was all planned.”

“Every little bit of it. That’s right. The kids and I planned ALL this to SEND A MESSAGE about art, mental health, teenage suicide, how we treat our educators and one another. To who? Parents. And grandparents. And all of Wellsville,” he posted.

He wrote that he gave one particular student “hope.”

“I went to jail for battery. Does that really make me a criminal? Time will tell.”

He said that the incident happened during fifth period, and that the classes before that hour went as planned, and he shared the same lesson in each one. He said what happened was “exactly what God planned. The kids were in on it. Not all of them. But most.”

Parents told The Star that their children were upset by what took place that day.

“He’s a leader. He’s in the statehouse. He’s somebody in a position of power. And he did not do right by those kids,” Zeck said. “A lot of kids were affected by that.”

Jessica Roberts, a mother with two children who attend the school, said that she is now more concerned about Samsel’s involvement in youth sports and activities.

“I think he shouldn’t be around children,” she said.

House Speaker Ron Ryckman told The Star that “we’re not yet aware of the details and in the process of gathering as much information as we can.”

Samsel, who is an attorney, is in his second term in the House, where he’s occasionally courted controversy. In February, he was one of just 13 lawmakers to vote against a bill that would have ended an exemption for spouses from the state’s sexual battery law.

Ahead of the vote, he gave a speech in which he appeared to express concerns about criminalizing sexual relations between spouses.

“To me, it gets to what does the sanctity of marriage mean?” Samsel was quoted as saying, according to the Kansas Reflector. “And I’m single, so I’m not the best person to speak to this. But when you do get married, what does that mean? And what implied consent are you giving?”

More recently, Samsel raised the possibility of impeaching Suellentrop, but the state constitution doesn’t allow the impeachment of legislators.

“If we’re going to be in a leadership position, who’s most important that’s watching us? To me, it’s the kids,” Samsel told The Star recently when discussing the Suellentrop case.

“And when they look across our country right now and see that you can do things under bathroom stalls or whatever else, make up an excuse, deny immediately and then it turns out, yeah, you were kind of guilty — the process happens way too many times and it’s not been done the right way.”

Words cannot describe how absolutely repugnant, despicable, gross, and awful everything about this is. Why the fuck are we seeing this again and again with members of the Republican party? Nobody is perfect, but we're seeing accusation of credible child abuse, sexual assault, and more over and over again.

I'm not even gonna pretend, the Republican party seems irredeemably diseases and filled with molesters, rapists, bigots, child abusers, spousal abusers, and absolutely amoral individuals.

I'm fully on board with, if he's found guilty of this shit, taking him into international waters and dropping him off with an inflatable raft. I do not support capitol punishment for terrorizing and assaulting children, but I do support the abusers being left to fend for themselves in the wild.

I don't even know what can be done to address this, conservative culture in America seems completely corrupted and incapable of redemption.

[Logwyn]

$1000 bond? Huh? I bet the same judge gave someone else 40k or 50k on the same day for the same crime or less. Dude should be in jail and never around kids again.

[Mayhem]

uhm, should there be a mega thread for republican pos?

[Egomaniac]

And even with this...he'll still win whenever he's up for re-election. Even some of the parents of these children are still going to vote for him.

[Bakis]

Don't forget the only black republican guy in the senate saying US got no racism.

[Mihalik]

That was a fucking roller coaster of a read.

Homophobia, toxic masculinity, child abuse, battery, drunk driving down the highway, masturbation, protecting spousal rape.

What is this fucking dumpsterfire?

[Edge-]

What is this fucking dumpsterfire?

The Republican party.

[Santti]

Horrible. Absolutely horrible.

[pathora44]

$1000 bond? Huh? I bet the same judge gave someone else 40k or 50k on the same day for the same crime or less. Dude should be in jail and never around kids again.

Ya if this was a black teenager arrested for having a single joint of weed the judge would probably slap him with a high 5 figure bail at least. The grown man though arrested for physically assaulting a teenager and telling the class they can physically assault the teenager gets a measly 1000 dollar bail probably while the judge is apologizing profusely for making him late for supper.

[Polyxo]

Was I the only substitute teacher in history that wasn't a fuckin psycho?

[Shadowferal]

Was I the only substitute teacher in history that wasn't a fuckin psycho?

Hmm...
Jury is still out. Need my eight ball..

[Fugus]

Hmm...
Jury is still out. Need my eight ball..

Given the context and the party involved that eight ball has a double meaning.

[Endus]

Beyond the fact that his homophobia, physical abusiveness, verbal bullying, and religious nonsense have no business in a public school setting, the whole "the kids were in on it" is both trivial to prove and disprove.

The kids are minors. They can't lawfully consent to this kind of stuff. You need parental permission.
So, get with the permission slips. Produce the signed permission slips from every single student you had any kind of contact with during this, acknowledging that they were granting permission for this conduct, and by that I mean specifically mentioning filming for distribution and aggressive physical contact and all that.

No slips? Then you're fucking guilty, assbag.

That of course only applies to the battery charge. By no means should this man legally be allowed to be within 500 feet of minors again. I don't know if he has kids himself, but if he does, I'd include his own kids in that order.

[Edge-]

I don't know if he has kids himself, but if he does, I'd include his own kids in that order.

In defending his decision to be one of 13 members voting against ending exceptions for for spouses in the states sexual battery law, he admitted that he's probably not the best person to be discussing this because he's single.

I sure wonder why.

[Howel]

Ya know, it is kind of weird reading stuff like this, because that's the kind of behaviour you hear your parents talk about in their teachers, back when they were young. Not at all regulated or monitored, no real punishment no matter how crazed a teacher was, and if you live in a rural community, you could get away with just about anything outside of literally killing the children.

So yeah, bit strange to see that being apparently appropriate behaviour in some people's minds still.

[Masark]

https://www.ksnt.com/capitol-bureau/...ses-statement/

This guy needs a dose of every antipsycotic in the pharmacopoeia.

[Edge-]

https://www.ksnt.com/capitol-bureau/...ses-statement/

This guy needs a dose of every antipsycotic in the pharmacopoeia.

I started reading but quickly realized he was just making a blog post and didn't have it in me to waste time reading the words of a guy that fucking assaults children.

[Edge-]

I did a quick skim and dude is fucking nuts. He’s not even denying what he did and condemning everyone else for acting shitty at school sporting events.

And if you think MY behavior in the classroom on Wednesday was inappropriate or even criminal, how about we compare it to YOUR behavior at any given PUBLIC SCHOOL (or private or home school) sporting event?

Uh...haven't been in a while but the last few sporting events I went to (including one public highschool game to see a family member play) I didn't like...assault anyone? Or verbally harass anyone? And just sat there and cheered when appropriate? And ate some popcorn?

I mean...does this grown-ass man without children routinely attend public school sporting events? And if so...why?

[Poopymonster]

Later he says it’s because he is a ref. But that just makes it worse. He’s teaching and reffing these kids and assaulting them in the name of “God”? Yeah. He’s nuts. Nobody cares when your family moved to Kansas. Nobody cares how often you go to church. They care because you’re assaulting kids.

Technically, he IS doing it by the book.

[Egomaniac]

The kids are minors. They can't lawfully consent to this kind of stuff. You need parental permission.
So, get with the permission slips. Produce the signed permission slips from every single student you had any kind of contact with during this, acknowledging that they were granting permission for this conduct, and by that I mean specifically mentioning filming for distribution and aggressive physical contact and all that.

And then, assuming those permission slips exist, send out social services to every single one of those households that said "Sure, I'll let this strange man attack my children"