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AOL News  reports a Duluth, Ga. high school student was suspended for one year and won’t graduate on time after hugging a teacher.

Sam McNair, 17, a senior, was suspended last week from Duluth High School after being accused of also kissing and sexually harassing a teacher, which McNair denies, according to a CBS Atlanta report.

"Something so innocent can be perceived as something totally opposite," McNair told the network.

The incident was captured on school surveillance cameras and shows McNair enter a room, place his arms around the back and front of the teacher and tuck his head behind her neck.

The teacher, who apparently warned McNair that hugging was against the rules, claims McNair’s cheeks and lips touched the back of her neck and cheek.

McNair said he regularly hugs his teachers and has never been disciplined for it before.

April McNair, Sam's mother, said she was “dumbfounded” when she learned of the suspension, and said the school should have contacted her earlier if there were problems with his hugging teachers.

"He'sa senior. He plays football and was getting ready for lacrosse and you're stripping him of even getting a full scholarship for athletics for college," said April McNair.

Sam McNair does have a discipline record and previous suspensions but not for sexual harassment.

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First Coast News reports a Florida elementary school teacher who was fired for feeding an autistic child hot sauce soaked crayons is being re-instated on the orders of a judge who rejected the school district's appeal to keep her out of the classroom.

Lillian Gomez was fired from her job at Sunrise Elementary School in Kissimmee, Fla., in February 2012 after school officials found out that Gomez had allegedly put jumbo-sized crayons in a cup and soaked them for days in hot sauce before moving them to a bag that was labeled with the student's name.

Gomez denied force-feeding the crayons and said she did it to deter the student from eating art supplies, her attorney said.

A spokeswoman for the Osceola County School District told ABC News on Thursday that after losing its appeal, the district is now placing Gomez at a different elementary school to "support other teachers" where she will have access to special needs students.

The details of her re-instatement have not been finalized, including the date or institution Gomez will be returning to, though the official confirmed she will not be welcomed back at Sunrise.

"We lost the appeal, so by law we have to comply by the courts," said school district spokeswoman Dana Schafer. "We don't want to come out and say anything bad about the teacher or say anything to worry parents."

But parents are already worried, especially the autistic student's father, who said he hoped he would never see Gomez back in a classroom again.

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Politickerreports mayor-elect Bill de Blasio went down to Washington, D.C. today to meet with President Barack Obama, emerging emboldened that a “progressive movement” was sweeping the nation.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, which includuded 15 other newly-elected mayors, Mr. de Blasio said it was clear to him that the fight against inequality–which formed the centerpiece of his campaign–was gaining steam far beyond the five boroughs.

“You can’t have a room full of mayors–literally every corner of the country–all spontaneously saying to the president of the United States the same exact things from their own experience: Something’s going on here … So what we have to do is organize it and amplify it,” he told Politicker.

“It was very interesting: a lot of them talked about pre-K, a lot of them talked about early childhood education as one of the breakthrough things we have to do to change the dynamics, a lot of them talked about their growing poverty levels and how it was undermining the future of their cities. So I think there was a really organic unity among all of us of the fact that this is the issue of our times. Fighting inequality is the mission of our times,” he said.

The meeting, organized by the White House, had been called “discuss the ways in which the Obama Administration can serve as an active partner on job creation and ensuring middle class families have a pathway to opportunity.”  Speaking in the Roosevelt Room, 

Mr. Obama said he hoped to partner with the city leaders to  help them achieve their goals.

“[M]y hope and goal out of this meeting is we immediate set up a strong partnership with all of the mayors that are here and all of the mayors that are not here where we get a clear sense of what their vision is of how they are trying to deliver services,” he said, according to a pool report.

Mr. de Blasio reportedly sat front and center in the room, directly across from the president as he discussed the recent budget deal, the importance of extending unemployment insurance and the potential benefits of raising the minimum wage.

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Daily Mailreports it was theft at first sight for one New Jersey woman last month.

Tonia Dolison, 46, not only enjoyed dinner on a 62-year-old man she met online, but stole a blank check from his house and used it to pay her rent, police say.

The woman, from New Jersey, has been charged with third and forth-degree grand larceny, second-degree forgery and second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument after the November 15 incident.

 

According to police, Dolison met her victim on a dating website and the two arranged to meet at a restaurant for their first date.

The date went so well that after dinner, Dolison agreed to go back to the man's Staten Island home for drinks, movies and to stay the night.

But while she was there, she swiped a check from a checkbook sitting on a table, she later admitted to detectives. 

As soon as he took her home, she struck, allegedly writing a check to pay $4,000 in back rent.

Police say the theft took place at about 2 a.m. November 15, according to the Staten Island Advance.

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