KS Rep. Samsel forfeits teaching license, seeks mental health treatment after April arrest

Kansas Rep. Mark Samsel says he is receiving mental health treatment and is giving up his substitute teaching license after “extreme stress, pressure and agitation” prompted an “isolated episode of mania with psychotic features” in April.

In a Facebook post shared with The Star Wednesday, Samsel, a Wellsville Republican, said the stress was at its worst during April and May, when the Kansas Legislature was in session.

At the end of April he was arrested and later charged with battery for allegedly kicking a student during a bizarre rant while substitute teaching a high school art class.

The Facebook post marks Samsel’s first public acknowledgment 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.”

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

In a brief interview, Wednesday, Samsel confirmed he had written the post but said he could not say more as his criminal case is pending.

In his Facebook post he said he hoped his openness would bring understanding to those who struggle with mental health.

“While my battle may be the most visible, I know from many private conversations in Topeka that my struggles are far from uncommon,” Samsel wrote.

Speaker of the House Ron Ryckman echoed that sentiment in a statement, saying the situation shows the importance of access to mental health services.

“’I’m pleased to see those services are being used and hope they will continue to be used by any Kansan feeling the weight that often comes with stress and anxiety,” Ryckman said.

Samsel faces three misdemeanor battery charges involving two approximately 16-year-old victims in the April 28 incident at Wellsville’s high school. Numerous videos taken by students that day show Samsel ranting about God, the Bible, masturbation and suicide. One student told police Samsel kicked him in the crotch.

His next court date is scheduled for Aug. 16. It’s possible Samsel will reach an agreement with prosecutors by then. His attorney, Christopher Scott, told a judge during his last court appearance on July 12 that he had been “hoping to maybe have some resolution of this matter” by the July court date.

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.

“He then stated, ‘I would honest to God never do anything to hurt him.’ Mark thought maybe (redacted) bruises ‘softly’ but ‘God works in mysterious ways,’” the affidavit says.

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