There is a minor charge against a teacher and coach at Lexington High School for making a student do push-ups on hot asphalt.
The Mansfield Municipal Court records show that Courtney James Steele was charged with one count of putting children in danger. A court case with a jury has been set for Dec. 18.
Last month, Steele said he was not guilty of the charge.
Steele was put on paid administrative leave on August 29. That same day, a man called the Lexington Police Department to say that his 15-year-old son had hurt himself in a high school weight-training class.
The boy’s hands and wrists were “red and several visible blisters,” which the police report said were “consistent with a burn injury.”
“We are aware that one of our employees is currently being charged with something that happened in September.” “This situation causes us a lot of worry and sadness,” said Supt. Jeremy Secrist of Lexington Local Schools.
The superintendent said that the district told child protective services and its school security officer about the situation.
Secrist also said that the district worked with the Lexington Police Department to make sure that there was “a thorough and independent investigation.”
Secrist said, “we always put the safety and well-being of our students first.” “We want to reassure everyone at school that we are taking these issues very seriously and are fully committed to making sure that all of our students are safe and supported.”
Boy alleges he was forced to do shuffle push ups
The first report said that the boy told cops that he joked with a friend that it was “chest day” when class started.
Steele is said to have heard the comment and told the person, “You want to do chest day? I will show you chest day.” The boy then said Steele made him do “shuffle push-ups” on the concrete track and told him to start over if he fell.
The boy said that he got to about the 30-yard line before he fell and told Steele that it hurt too much to keep going. Steele later let the boy do the exercise on the grass, but the boy said his hands were still hurting.
Video shows that once the boy is on the grass, he falls several times and starts over at the starting line. The report says that the whole thing went just over 11 minutes.
In a follow-up report, school security officer Christopher Glennon said, “(The boy) restarted the exercise each time and said he felt threatened by Steele and that he had no choice but to end the exercise because of Steele}s behavior.”
“(The boy) said Steele did not give him any medical help or first aid even after he told him his hands were burning.”
The boy also told the cops When he showed Steele his hands, the teacher “brushed it off.” Steele would not let him go until he got to the 50-yard line.
After they got to the 50-yard line, he told Glennon that Steele made him do an exercise with battle ropes, but he kept dropping them because his hands hurt. He is said to have stayed after class finished for eight minutes to wash his hands with cold water.
Student witnesses say teacher ‘did not appear mad’
Glennon also looked at video of the event, which seemed to show the boy complaining about his hands hurting more than once after moving to the grass.
From what Glennon wrote, it looked like the boy did plank walks on the track for about 52 seconds before stopping and going to the grass. He began and stopped six more times while doing different numbers of push ups on the grass.
For a follow-up story, Glennon also talked to six witnesses, all of whom were students. The report says that the stories told by the kids were all the same. They were sure that the boy had said he wanted to do chest day instead of running.
He wrote in his report that the kids said the workout did not seem like a punishment and that Mr. Steele did not look mad. “They said that something like this had never happened before when asked.”
Students told Glennon that the boy could choose to do the plank walks or the training, and he chose to do the plank walks. “He was forced to do the workout,” they said.
Steele is a fourth year teacher, multi-sport coach, Army veteran
Steele has been a high school health and physical education teacher for the district since the fall of 2021.
A note in Steele’s personnel file says that he had never taught before but had served in the service for 12 years.
Steele went to Bowling Green to study physical education and now has a master’s degree from Liberty University in Human Performance: Strength Training and Conditioning.
Steele has taught football at the middle school and high school levels and volunteered as a baseball and wrestling coach at Lexington.
Steele won four Army Commendation Medals while he was in the US Army. Two of them were with combat devices because he was deployed in Iraq.
Besides that, he got two Army achievement medals, an operation inherent resolve campaign medal with campaign star, and a distinguished unit citation while he was in Iraq.
