Nathan Martin has resigned from Mansfield City Schools.
“I resigned for personal reasons,” Martin told the News Journal. “No amount of salacious reporting is going to change that fact.”
Martin, a social studies teacher who joined the district in 2023, has been an elected member of Shelby City Council since 2014.
Martin’s “voluntary resignation” from the school district became effective May 10, 2026, according to a resignation agreement obtained by the News Journal through a public records request.
“This agreement shall not be construed as an admission of any wrongdoing by either the board or employee,” the agreement noted. “Each party expressly denies that it has engaged in any misconduct.”
The resignation agreement specified: “Upon inquiry from prospective employers, the board will provide only neutral information.”
As a teacher, Martin was a member of the Mansfield School Employees Association, according to Brad Strong, the union’s president.
“The MSEA got Mr. Martin an attorney and represented his interest,” Strong said. “The decision to resign was Mr. Martin’s and was made with legal counsel and the MSEA.”
All parties expressed that further comment was legally prohibited.
‘Are you circumcised like me?’
A clause in the resignation agreement between Martin and Mansfield City Schools read: “Neither this resignation agreement nor any records relative to any investigation of employee conducted by employer shall be placed in his personnel file but shall be maintained by the employer as public records in a separate file or files.”
In its records request, the News Journal asked for Martin’s personnel file “and any disciplinary documentation, should it be kept separate from the personnel file.”
Among the documents was a “notice of pre-disciplinary meeting” signed by Superintendent Stan Jefferson and addressed to Martin on April 14.
Jefferson told Martin that he was “directed to attend a pre-disciplinary meeting on April 24.”
“You will have the opportunity to respond or otherwise tell your side of the story regarding the following charges,” Jefferson wrote.
Those charges were that “on or about March 27,” Martin took his guitar to school “and started singing to students.”
Jefferson’s letter alleged that Martin sang the lyrics: “Are you circumcised like me?”
Jefferson continued: “When confronted by a student or students about you singing the song, you replied, ‘it’s just the circumcision song. You guys don’t know the circumcision song?’ or words to that effect.”
The agreement stipulated the district would give Martin his final paycheck May 15, and that he would remain covered by the district’s health insurance through July 31.
Contact Zach Tuggle at 419-564-3508. Follow him on X at @zachtuggle.
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Shelby Councilman Nathan Martin resigns from Mansfield City Schools
Reporting by Zach Tuggle, Mansfield News Journal / Mansfield News Journal
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