- Duval County Teacher of the Year 2017 candidate Brent Sawdy was investigated
- Lake Shore Middle School said he failed to supervise pupils and was suspended
- He is alleged to have let them to expose their bodies during ‘Dirty Dare’ game
- Students reports girls showing their bodies and said a boy licked a girl’s breast
Duval County Teacher of the Year 2017 entrant Brent Sawdy (pictured) was investigated by Lake Shore Middle School
A semifinalist in a teacher of the year contest has been suspended by his school in Jacksonville, Florida after pupils under his supervision played a game of ‘Dirty Dare’.
Duval County Teacher of the Year 2017 entrant Brent Sawdy was investigated by Lake Shore Middle School after police were called following reports that two girls exposed their bodies, students kissed and a boy licked a girl’s breast.
The seventh graders were interviewed after their May field trip to Diamond D Ranch as part of an investigation.
According to News4Jax, the subsequent report heard from students on the trip who said Sawdy had mentioned he had work to do and gave them free time to write notes.
He said he initially put on a Bill Nye video and turned off the lights, but when it became obvious the students were not interested, he turned it off and put on music instead.
A boy then slapped a girl on her leg, he said, but he pulled him aside and rebuked him.
There was no other inappropriate behaviour, he said.
But Sawdy was found to have ‘failed to provide adequate supervision when he allowed students in his class to participate in an inappropriate game which involved kissing and exposure of private parts’ by Duval County professional standards board.
And the Florida Department of Children and Families arrived at the same conclusion.
He was given a seven-day suspension without pay on Monday.