Kansas Senate leader retires from teaching after 43 years

In this file photo from June 2016, Kansas Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka, speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. (AP Photo/John Hanna)

The longest serving legislator in Kansas history has retired from his career outside politics as a public school teacher after 43 years.

Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley’s last day in a classroom was Thursday, when schools in his hometown of Topeka let out for the summer.

He taught social studies at Highland Park High School for the past seven years but spent most of his career at a school for students with behavior disorders.

Hensley joked, “In the Legislature, I was dealing with behavior-disordered adults.”

The 64-year-old Democrat is serving his 42nd year in the Legislature. He won a House seat in 1976 after returning to Topeka from a year of teaching in El Dorado. He was elected to the Senate in 1992 and has been minority leader since 1997.

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