(Photo Credit: @J_Fishback on X)<\/p>\n
A Florida school district \u201ccut ties\u201d with controversial Republican gubernatorial candidate James Fishback\u00a0after a student claimed he had an \u201cinappropriate relationship\u201d with her while she was underage, NBC News reported on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The student, Keinah Fort, claimed Fishback \u201cinitiated a romantic relationship\u201d with her in 2022 when she was 17, and he was 27, according to court documents obtained by NBC<\/a> and the website Florida Politics. Fishback \u201cexplicitly directed\u201d Fort to keep the relationship a secret, according to those documents.<\/p>\n The two met a year prior when Fort joined Fishback\u2019s nonprofit group Incubate Debate, \u201cwhich runs in-person tournaments for middle and high school students,\u201d Florida Politics<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n A Broward County School District official told NBC News it \u201cended [Fishback\u2019s] volunteer work\u201d shortly after being made aware of the relationship in 2022 by the mom of another student.<\/p>\n Fort moved in with Fishback in 2023 and they were briefly engaged, both outlets reported. The age of consent in Florida is 18.<\/p>\n Fishback denied the allegations to NBC News.<\/p>\n \u201cThese allegations from several years ago are completely false, and after two lengthy court hearings in Florida\u2019s Second Judicial Circuit, I was fully exonerated. I have never been arrested, charged, or convicted of any crime,\u201d Fishback said in a statement.<\/p>\n He also accused Fort of cyberbullying and stalking when reached by Florida Politics. Fishback said there was \u201cno evidence\u201d to support her claims and that he was \u201cfully exonerated.\u201d<\/p>\n Florida Politics reported \u201cFort\u2019s [court] petition did not detail the level of her and Fishback\u2019s alleged intimacy while she was underage, and she did not respond to multiple interview requests.\u201d<\/p>\n The outlet said their \u201cdomestic life was hardly tranquil,\u201d based on Fort\u2019s court documents. She accused Fishback of losing his temper and throwing objects at her, as well as \u201cleaving visible marks\u201d on her arms one time after grabbing her.<\/p>\n Fishback told NBC News Broward County\u2019s claim that it cut ties with him did not make sense.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have never had any ties, contracts, or financial relationships with the Broward County School District and never will,\u201d he said. \u201cBroward has pushed DEI, transgenderism, and radical left-wing ideology on our kids. As Governor, I will use my authority under Article IV, Section 7 of the Florida Constitution to remove Broward School Board Members who violate the public trust.\u201d<\/p>\n The 30-year-old is vying to follow Ron DeSantis<\/a> as Florida\u2019s next governor in next November\u2019s election. Fishback is the CEO of investment firm Azoria Partners and is running on a hard-right platform<\/a>. He has said he wants to deport every \u201cforeign worker who has stolen a job from\u201d Americans and is vehemently anti-AIPAC.<\/p>\n The post Florida School District \u2018Cut Ties\u2019 With Republican Gov Candidate for \u2018Inappropriate Relationship\u2019 With Underage Student, NBC News Reports<\/a> first appeared on Mediaite<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Photo Credit: @J_Fishback on X) A Florida school district \u201ccut ties\u201d with controversial Republican gubernatorial candidate James Fishback\u00a0after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[52859,40617,28,30,29,4833,34282,52860,27896],"class_list":{"0":"post-100826","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-broward-county-school-district","9":"tag-court-documents","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-florida-headlines","12":"tag-florida-news","13":"tag-florida-politics","14":"tag-inappropriate-relationship","15":"tag-keinah-fort","16":"tag-nbc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}