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Student Suspended for Sexual Harassment After Hugging Teacher

Posted at 10:33 AM, Dec 17, 2013
and last updated 2013-12-17 10:33:28-05

student suspended(CNN) — To Sam McNair, a 17-year-old high school senior in Duluth, Georgia, it was an innocent hug.

“You never know what someone’s going through,” McNair told CNN affiliate WGCLin Atlanta. “A hug might help.”

It didn’t in this case because after McNair hugged a teacher, he ended up with a year-long suspension from Duluth High School, putting his college plans in jeopardy.

“He’s a senior; he plays football. He was getting ready for lacrosse season, and you are stripping him of the opportunity to even get a full scholarship for athletics for college,” April McNair, Sam’s mother, told WGCL.

The elder McNair, who says she and her son call themselves huggers, said she was dumbfounded to learn of her son’s suspension after hugging a teacher.

Surveillance video captures the hug in question, showing Sam placing his arms around the teacher and giving her a hug. The teacher then pushes him away.

According to a discipline report obtained by WGCL, the teacher said Sam’s lips and cheeks touched her neck and that she had warned Sam about hugging in the past.

Asked if he kissed the teacher, Sam told the television reporter he did not. He said he has hugged teachers many times before, including this teacher, and has never been warned.

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