Kansas Rep. Mark Samsel in talks about plea offer after arrest for teaching incident

An attorney for Kansas Rep. Mark Samsel, who was arrested and charged with battery in May for allegedly kicking a student during a bizarre rant while substitute teaching, is negotiating a plea deal with Franklin County prosecutors.

Samsel, a Wellsville Republican, appeared at the hearing Monday morning via Zoom with his attorney Chris Scott. Franklin County Attorney Brandon Jones said that Scott reached out to him last Friday with a possible plea offer, but that he was still reviewing the proposal and would need to discuss it with the alleged victims.

Jones said he should have a decision on the potential plea agreement by next Monday, when Samsel’s next court appearance was set for 11:30 a.m.

Scott told The Star that he would wait for Jones to discuss the plea offer with the other parties involved before providing any details.

Samsel faces three misdemeanor battery charges after his arrest at the end of April, involving two approximately 16-year-old victims. He allegedly kicked a student while substitute teaching a high school art class in Wellsville, a town roughly 20 miles southwest of Olathe.

Also during his time teaching that day, high schoolers recorded videos of Samsel lecturing them about God, religion, lesbianism, masturbation and suicide.

In May, Samsel pleaded not guilty to the charges and a judge ordered him to undergo a mental health evaluation.

Earlier this month, Samsel wrote on Facebook that he is receiving mental health treatment and is giving up his substitute teaching license. He said “extreme stress, pressure and agitation” prompted an “isolated episode of mania with psychotic features.”

Samsel said he had visits with mental health professionals over the past three months and was studying ways to handle stress. He said “there is no likelihood that it will happen again.”

The Facebook post was the first time Samsel had publicly acknowledged that April’s events stemmed from mental health struggles. According to the American Journal of Psychiatry, a manic episode with psychotic features is a period in which a person is “extremely high spirited or irritable” and “experiences disorganized thinking, false beliefs, and/or hallucinations.”

Videos taken by students in the class, and shared with The Star, captured Samsel telling students about a teenager who was suicidal because “he has two parents and they’re both females.”

In another video, Samsel is recorded telling students off camera, “make babies. Who likes making babies? That feels good, doesn’t it? Procreate. ... You haven’t masturbated? Don’t answer that question. ... God already knows.”

One student told police Samsel kicked him in the crotch.

During an interview with investigators shortly after the incident, Samsel described a chaotic classroom with misbehaving students and said he had begun to lose his temper a little bit, according to an affidavit used to charge him in Franklin County District Court. The students had Samsel at his “wit’s end,” he told the officers.

Samsel said he “barely grabbed” one student and told the student to give him space and said he had heard the student had a bruise.