A Tennessee teacher resigned last week amid public outrage over a video that showed him feeling up a female student in the middle of class, though school officials planned to keep him on the job at a “smaller school.”
The Rutherford County school system launched an investigation into Travis Holland, a history teacher and basketball coach at Eagleville High School, in May after a video recorded in class showed him rubbing on a female student.
Eagleville High School
Teacher’s name: Travis Holland
This is fucking disgusting, I will kill someone if I saw a teacher touching my daughter like that!!! pic.twitter.com/c2qjy2QxQj— Jordan Gonzalez (@firevein27) May 23, 2019
In the video, a seated Holland put his hand on the girl’s back as she stood by his desk, then slipped his arm around her waist as she fidgeted with her shorts.
“This is f**king disgusting,” Jordan Gonzalez posted to Twitter, along with the video. “I will kill someone if I saw a teacher touching my daughter like that!!!”
The girl’s parents told WZTV Holland was consoling their child after the death of a family member, but other parents who provided the video to the television station said several have complained to school officials about the teacher’s hands-on approach.
Regardless, the video prompted district officials to launch an investigation and contact local law enforcement, though they ultimately declined to pursue criminal charges, WZTV reports.
The school district issued a prepared statement about the ordeal that makes it clear the teacher will remain on the payroll despite the complaints about touching teenage girls inappropriately. The decision is undoubtedly surprising for some parents as schools across the country have worked to crack down on inappropriate relationships between students and teachers, a problem that’s snowballed in recent years because of social media.
“Travis Holland, a world history teacher and baseball coach at Eagleville School, will receive a 10-day unpaid suspension, reassignment to a smaller school, removal of all coaching duties and be required to complete counseling through Rutherford County’s Employee Assistance Program,” the statement read.
Rutherford County Director of Schools Bill Spurlock charged Holland with “conduct unbecoming a member of the teaching profession and inefficiency,” and district officials referred his case to the Tennessee State Board of Education’s Office of Educator Licensure, the entity that grants and revokes teaching licenses.
The district’s investigation found Holland invited specific students to his desk and pulled female students from other classrooms to visit his. Multiple students told investigators Holland often hugged and rubbed students, and a coach at the school told a neighbor in law enforcement about concerns with Holland’s touchy-feely style, the Daily News Journal reports.
Boys in his classes told investigators they thought Holland was “weird and creepy.” Others told school investigators the teacher was especially close to a now-graduated student and described the relationship as “flirtatious.”
Holland was reassigned from Eagleville to Holloway High School, where he was set to finish six days of his 10-day suspension in August.
Instead, the controversy convinced Holland to submit his resignation to the district’s human resources department via email last week.
“Please accept this as my official resignation from Rutherford County Schools,” Holland wrote, according to the Daily News Journal.
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