Akron Public Schools left a social studies teacher on paid leave for more than a year without ever taking disciplinary action or clearing him of wrongdoing.
Benjamin Flossie, a social studies teacher at Garfield Community Learning Center, was placed on paid administrative leave in October 2024 after social media videos appeared to show him acting inappropriately with a teenage girl.
Flossie, who has denied the allegations, still was on paid administrative leave when he resigned on March 4.
During the 16 months he was out of the classroom, Flossie, 44, was paid $135,582, according to APS Treasurer Wayne Bowers II. Included in the amount was $2,051 that Flossie received to be a breakfast coordinator for the 2024-2025 school year, even though he left less than three months after school began. The school board approved the supplemental contract a month after Flossie was put on leave.
Flossie, who also had worked as a varsity assistant football coach, varsity tennis coach, activity supervisor and other supplemental positions during his roughly 20 years with the district, did not receive a payout for his accumulated sick time since he resigned. Teachers do not accrue vacation time because their contracts are for 190 days per year, the treasurer said.
To better understand why Flossie remained on paid leave for so long, the Akron Beacon Journal reviewed Flossie’s personnel file, the district’s investigation materials, disciplinary records and other district communications regarding Flossie. The Beacon Journal also interviewed a teachers union representative and sought to interview district officials.
District spokesperson Stacey Hodoh said the district does not comment on personnel-related matters.
Attorney Donald Malarcik, who represents the Akron Education Association, said Flossie isn’t the only teacher who recently remained on administrative leave for an extended period of time. He said the issue has become a problem over the past five years.
Based on the public records reviewed, here’s a timeline of the 16 months Flossie remained on paid leave:
October 2024: Social media videos surface
Garfield students, parents and other staff members called the school’s principal and other administrators on Oct. 27, 2024, about videos posted live on social media the previous night.
The videos, as described by the district’s investigator, show Flossie with a teen girl and her friend. At times, Flossie is shown dancing suggestively with the teen, touching her inappropriately and responding to the girl’s sexually suggestive commands. The girl also tells Flossie that she was using a “private line” for the live recording when he asked her not to “put me on there,” according to the investigator’s detailed description of the five videos reviewed.
In the videos, Flossie, who was off duty, is wearing a Garfield Rams football jersey that he borrowed from a football coach for the PTA’s trunk-or-treat event held a few days earlier, according to the investigator.
Administrators confirmed the girl, who was no longer an Akron Public Schools student, was 16 at the time. They also confirmed that at least one video had been recorded from inside Flossie’s home.
District officials notified Flossie on Oct. 28, 2024, that he was being placed on paid administrative leave. Flossie was instructed to return district-owned equipment, refrain from talking with students, staff or families who may be involved with the investigation and avoid accessing district property without approval.
The notification letter does not state why Flossie was placed on leave.
Administrators also notified Summit County Children Services, completed the school district’s child abuse form, reported the incident to the Summit County Sheriff’s Office through the school resource officer and sent messages to staff and families.
November 2024: Flossie takes medical leave
District investigators sought to interview Flossie about the videos in November 2024 but rescheduled the investigative meeting when they learned that Flossie had sought treatment for a medical issue.
The district placed Flossie on leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act, requiring him to use his accumulated sick time while undergoing treatment.
December 2024: APS teacher ready to return
On Dec. 12, 2024, the district’s executive director of human capital and its labor relations director both announced their intention to resign, effective Jan. 3, 2025. A week later, the school board hired an outside law firm to investigate allegations against then-Superintendent C. Michael Robinson and other administrators.
On Dec. 27, 2024, Attorney Malarcik notified the district that Flossie had finished treatment and was ready to return.
The district placed Flossie back on paid administrative leave, effective Jan. 6, 2025, and set the investigative meeting for Jan. 14, 2025.
January 2025: Investigator issues report
The district’s investigator, attorney Stephanie Olivera Mittica of the law firm Roetzel & Andress, concluded on Jan. 15, 2025, that “there is credible evidence to substantiate” that Flossie’s actions and behavior in October 2024 violated the district’s staff ethics policy.
“(Flossie’s) actions directly contradict the level of ethics, integrity and high ideals reasonably expected of teachers like (him),” Mittica wrote.
She based her findings on text messages, photographs, screenshots, social media videos, posts and comments, the teenage girl’s student records and a written statement and interview with Garfield Community Learning Center’s campus principal Kathryn Rodocker.
The report notes that Flossie, who did not participate in the investigatory interview, had been previously disciplined by Garfield principals for using racial slurs and other inappropriate language in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
February 2025: APS seeks second outside attorney
Tod Wammes, then the district’s labor relations manager, asked Christian Williams, partner with the Pepple and Waggoner law firm, on Feb. 12, 2025, to review Mittica’s investigative report and records and provide his thoughts regarding discipline.
Wammes said the district wanted to follow the same process it used to seek the termination of North High School’s athletic director, who had been accused of insubordination, mismanagement of job duties and questionable handling of district resources and contracts. The athletic director, who denied the allegations, resigned in January 2025 after being on paid administrative leave for nine months.
Wammes also told Williams in the email that he recently learned that money was found in Flossie’s classroom desk. He said Flossie had mentioned a smaller sum of money that was locked in the classroom, but officials found no receipts to identify what the money was collected for.
Garfield’s principal reported that a substitute teacher found $1,267.54 and documents related to a parent-teacher organization in Flossie’s office desk drawer.
March 2025: More details sought
Wammes asked Mittica for the videos related to her investigative report regarding Flossie that she had sent in January 2025. He also asked Garfield principal Rodocker to obtain details in writing regarding the money that was found in Flossie’s desk.
April 2025: Police, court records requested
Wammes asked the Tallmadge Police Department and Stow Municipal Court for records related to Flossie being arrested for driving under the influence on Jan. 8, 2025. Flossie already was on probation for operating a vehicle while intoxicated in August 2024, according to Barberton Municipal Court records. In both misdemeanor cases, Flossie was found guilty and ordered to attend driver intervention programs in place of jail and pay a fine, court records show.
May 2025: No activity documented
No district records documenting activity regarding Flossie’s investigation were provided.
June 2025: State investigators seek information
A program administrator with the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce’s office of professional conduct told district officials in June that the office received a referral regarding Flossie. He asked about the district’s investigation into the allegations and whether any discipline had been given.
That same week, Wammes asked Garfield’s principal for additional information related to the money found in Flossie’s desk so he could provide that information to the state.
“Once I have this final information, I will look at being able to move forward with a meeting and resolution to this matter,” Wammes wrote in an email on June 24.
July 2025: More information gathered
Principal Rodocker sent Wammes an updated packet of information regarding the money found in Flossie’s desk, as well as information for the law enforcement agencies that were contacted in October 2024 regarding the social media videos of Flossie.
August 2025: Flossie gets a salary raise
Flossie’s annual salary increased by $869 to $96,443, effective Aug. 18, for the 2025-2026 school year.
No records documenting activity on Flossie’s investigation were provided.
September to December 2025: No activity documented
No records documenting activity on Flossie’s investigation were provided.
When asked about what, if any, action district officials took between July and January 2026, human resources executive director Chase Canfield said the district “did not locate records reflecting any action taken during that time period.”
January 2026: ‘Try to tie this up’
Canfield, who was hired in October, asked Wammes in an email on Jan. 23 to contact the teachers union and set up a predisciplinary hearing for Flossie as soon as possible. The predisciplinary hearing is where district officials present the evidence they gathered and allow the employee to respond.
“Best thing we can do here is to try to tie this up,” Canfield wrote. “… My hope is that if we schedule it soon, he resigns.”
A week later, Canfield told the teachers union’s representatives that he would be “birddogging” Flossie’s case to take some things off Wammes’ plate. Malarcik told Canfield on Jan. 30 that Flossie did not want to resign.
Canfield declined to specify when he learned that Flossie was on paid administrative leave.
February 2026: District investigator resigns, outside attorney sought again
Wammes resigned on Feb. 5 after facing allegations of gross neglect of duty.
Wammes, during a termination hearing of a different school employee, testified that he resigned for personal reasons. He said the gross neglect of duty allegation was “with regards to a case that I had not followed up (with) timely.” He did not return messages seeking comment.
On Feb. 9, Canfield asked attorney Williams from Pepple and Waggoner if he could handle Flossie’s predisciplinary hearing.
Williams asked Malarcik on Feb. 18 if Flossie wanted to resign. He said in the email that the district was not interested in approving a last-chance agreement, given the seriousness of the charges related to the October 2024 social media videos, Flossie’s prior incidents of misconduct regarding the use of racially inappropriate language and the discovery of unsecured money in his classroom desk.
“Further, given that he has been off on paid leave for well over a year, there is no interest in further keeping him off on any paid status,” Williams wrote.
March 2026: Flossie resigns
Flossie submitted his resignation letter on March 4. He did not provide a reason for his resignation.
The school board accepted Flossie’s resignation on March 23.
Ohio, APS rules don’t limit administrative leave
Ohio law and the Akron Education Association’s bargaining contract do not specify time limits for how long a school employee can remain on paid administrative leave.
Akron Public Schools does not have a policy regarding administrative leave. The school board’s policy committee is reviewing a draft administrative leave policy, which also will be reviewed by the board’s rules committee before being presented to the full seven-member board for approval.
The draft policy states that administrative leave shall be imposed for the “shortest reasonable duration necessary” and shall not be used as a substitute for timely investigation or action. It requires district officials to review employees on administrative leave status at least every 30 days and provide written justification and a report to the school board for any extension beyond 30 days.
Malarcik, who has represented the Akron Education Association for more than 25 years, said he’s aware of at least a half-dozen teachers who stayed on paid administrative leave for eight months or more. He said the district also has kept teachers on paid leave even after an outside agency, such as Summit County Children Services, cleared them of wrongdoing.
“These cases languish,” said Malarcik, who said he reminded district officials several times that Flossie still was on paid leave. “That is not fair to the students, and it’s not fair to the teacher.”
While administrative leave is not considered punitive, Malarcik said keeping a teacher out of the classroom for so long can damage a teacher’s reputation.
“It creates an incredible stigma for the teachers to be removed from the classroom and placed under investigation for false allegations,” he said. “Those are career-defining moments, and the administration refuses to bring them back despite irrefutable evidence that nothing occurred.”
It also can give students the idea that they can make false allegations to get a teacher removed for several months, he said.
Flossie maintains innocence, retains teaching license
Malarcik said Flossie denies the district’s allegations.
“Ben specifically denied and continues to deny that he had any appropriate relationship with a minor,” he said.
According to court records, Flossie has not been criminally charged in the October 2024 incident.
The Ohio Department of Education and Workforce has not taken action on the referral it received regarding Flossie. Malarcik said the state typically waits until the local school district finishes its investigation before proceeding with its own review.
If the state does find wrongdoing, it can choose to suspend or permanently revoke Flossie’s credentials.
Flossie holds a five-year teaching license for integrated social studies in grades 7-12 and a five-year principal license, according to state education records. Both expire on June 30, 2028.
Regarding the money found in Flossie’s desk, Canfield said, “Based on the records located, the third-party investigator’s report does not address these questions, nor does it indicate any funds were missing.”
Malarcik said Flossie denies stealing or misappropriating any money.
Reach Akron Beacon Journal education writer Kelli Weir at 330-580-8339 or kweir@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Akron teacher accused of misconduct left on paid leave for 16 months
Reporting by Kelli Weir, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
