Despite numerous allegations that he taunted female, Black, Latino, and queer students in his classroom over the course of two decades, there is no evidence that a high school social studies teacher in Tampa was rebuked or disciplined, according to a Tampa Bay Times investigation. Todd Harvey’s allegedly tyrannical reign over his classroom began shortly after he began teaching in 1997, beginning with singling out students and picking on them throughout the day, calling at least one girl “slutty,” and shaming kids with divorced parents. His pattern of inappropriate comments allegedly continued when he moved to Wharton High School in 2000, after he was accused of calling a biracial girl a “mutt,” throwing up a Nazi salute at a German student, and keeping a metal pipe that he’d crack across students’ desks if they fell asleep in his class. Harvey was investigated—two students told an investigator that Harvey’s class felt “barbaric”—but while he was suspended for five days without pay and reprimanded for “unprofessional conduct,” he was soon back teaching again.
