The pictures displayed by a high school art teacher showed nudity, for sure. The question is whether they were artistic or obscene.
Brenda Fischer, a veteran teacher at Western High in Davie, faces a three-day suspension for showing her students a video with nude models in positions that some students described as suggestive.
Fischer, “by her own admission, had previewed the video before she played it” for students in two creative photography classes Aug. 23, according to a district administrative complaint. The Broward County School Board will consider Tuesday whether to take action.
The complaint doesn’t name the video, but students say it featured a collection of images by a photographer.
“Fischer showed students … images of a topless female holding the genitals of a male who was naked from the waist down,” the complaint says.
There were also “images of a male kneeling and appearing to stare into the naked genitals of a female standing in front him,” the district says.
The complaint accuses Fischer of misconduct in office, incompetence and willful neglect of duty.
Fischer plans to fight the suspension before an administrative law judge. She couldn’t be reached for comment, despite attempts Thursday and Friday.
The Broward Teachers Union is defending her.
“She teaches art. The video was art,” Union President Anna Fusco said.
Fischer, who has worked for the district since 1992, has a long history of discipline issues.
The state Department of Education said that in March 2017, she “kissed students on the cheek and hugged students without their permission … during class.” She also “placed her arm around the waist of a 15-year old female student and held her for approximately 90 seconds,” making the student feel uncomfortable, a state complaint said. The state gave her a reprimand and fined her $750 in October 2018.
In 2017, she also received a written directive from the district to “refrain from making physical contact with any student, refrain from screaming” at anyone affiliated with the school and treat people at the school in a “respectful manner.”
She received a three-day suspension in 2009 for inappropriate language, as well a reprimand in 2014 for “exposing a student to unnecessary embarrassment and disparagement.”
But she also successfully fought a five-day suspension in 2014. A student alleged she used profanity and improperly grabbed another student’s arm in the Western High parking lot. An administrative law judge overturned the suspension, ordering the district to give her $1,200 in back pay. The judge said the student’s allegations couldn’t be substantiated by anyone else, including the alleged victim.
This time, the district packed the complaint with statements from nine different students, who all gave consistent remarks that the video contained graphic images.
One student described seeing a “male crouched on the floor being explained as submitting to a dominant sex partner.” Another student reported seeing “a male and female, both nude, and the female’s hand was on the male’s groin area.”
Some students said she tried to fast forward through the inappropriate images after they appeared on the screen.
stravis@sunsentinel.com, 561-243-6637 or Twitter @smtravis