MARSEILLE, FRANCE - 2022/11/19: A protester is seen signing the anti-bullfighting petition during the demonstration. Protesters have gathered in Marseille during the pending debate in the National Assembly on November 24. This is to support the bill to abolish bullfighting proposed by the deputy of La France Insoumise (LFI) Aymeric Caron. (Photo by Gerard Bottino/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
A petition is circulating online calling for a Florida high school teacher to be fired for amongst many things, allegedly calling a biracial student a “mutt,” giving a Nazi salute to a German exchange student, and having students pay him to increase their grades.
Todd Harvey – a Wharton High School in Tampa who has faced numerous complaints over the last 25 years – is characterized as a racist, homophobic, and misogynistic “serial abuser,” according to the Change.org petition, which currently has 523 signatures.
“Todd Harvey is a serial abuser with more than 20 documented offenses toward minors in the classroom,” the petition reads. “He is a homophobic, racist, misogynistic, person who should not be a teacher at all.”
It continues: “His immediate termination is demanded on behalf of parents and students.”
The petition also calls for a “thorough investigation” by both law enforcement and school officials after Harvey’s history of complaints first surfaced in an exposé by the Tampa Bay Times.
The news outlet had obtained school district records that revealed at least 23 alleged complaints of misconduct since he started teaching at the school back in 1997.
Harvey was once suspended without pay for five days for reportedly making racially “disparaging” remarks, and also found himself in trouble after letting students pay him to increase their grades, according to the Times.
“I understand it is not uncommon for this man to reduce students to tears,” one parent complained in 1999.
He was threatened with termination at least two times, however officials ultimately let him continue teaching. One student called his classes “barbaric,” the Times reports.
The alleged complaints include sexually inappropriate remarks. Harvey reportedly called one girl “slutty” and told another he would marry her after she turned 21.
Harvey admittedly called the “slutty” comment a joke that he now regrets.
He also told students that gay couples shouldn’t be allowed to marry in a church, and that women should remain at home and not in the workplace, per the Times’ report.
Harvey is said to have singled out some girls with “thunder thighs,” telling them they should not be wearing shorts.
The list of complaints go on: he reportedly mocked Latino students for being “hairy and eating rice and beans” and calling a German exchange student “Germany” and not by his actual name.
Another German exchange student lodged a complaint against Harvey for making a Nazi salute in class. Harvey defended the act as a part of a Holocaust lesson.
And a principal once admitted that “everyone” knew Harvey had a pitcher on the school’s baseball team to deliberately throw a ball at an opposing player’s head, of which Harvey denied.
He was last reprimanded in Feb. 2017 for “unprofessional conduct” for allowing students to cheat on a test, with officials forcing their scores to be invalidated, according to the outlet.
Meanwhile, not all complaints were formally submitted, like that of Melanie Copeland, who told the Tampa Bay Times that Harvey once asked how she described her race on government forms because she is biracial, and alleging going on to say that she should put “mutt.”
Copeland was so upset that her mother ended up removing her of the school district entirely.
Perhaps the most damning accusation against Harvey is that he bullied a transgender student who eventually died by suicide. Authorities claim the pupil had been upset by a debate with Harvey earlier that day.
Harvey allegedly tormented the student, an unnamed friend told the outlet, telling the pupil he looked like a school shooter and a “psychopath.
Those interested in signing the petition to have Harvey fired can do so here.
