Texas teacher facing axe after comparing police to the KKK

As a professional charged with shaping young minds it is important to provoke debate and vigorous inquiry among students.

However, in the febrile environment sweeping across the country, it is also advisable not to go too far with a controversial idea.

A middle school teacher in Wylie, Texas, may now be regretting their recent choice of assignment after a backlash that has seen officials up to and including the Governor call for them to be terminated.

The educator, who has not been named, landed in hot water after giving work to students that appeared to endorse a comparison between slave ships, the Ku Klux Klan and police officers in modern day America.

The assignment, which school officials said was not by authorized the district, showed a five-panel cartoon that started with a slave ship officer with his knee on a Black man’s neck and ended with a police officer with his knee on a Black man’s neck while he said, “I can’t breathe.” The series also included an image of a Klansman holding a noose around a Black man’s neck, according to a report in Newsweek. The district is located just outside Dallas.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted Sunday that a teacher comparing police officers to the KKK is “beyond unacceptable. It’s the opposite of what must be taught. The teacher should be fired. I’m asking the Texas Education Agency to investigate and take action.”

Joe Gamaldi, vice president of the National Fraternal Order of Police, sent a letter to Wylie Independent School District (ISD) Superintendent David Vinson saying that the assignment was “abhorrent and disturbing.” The district later issued an apology, Gamaldi said.

Wylie ISD spokesperson Ian Halperin said that the assignment was given to Cooper Junior High eighth-grade social studies students as part of “Celebrate Freedom Week”, where students learned about the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence.

In an email dated Aug. 20, Cooper Junior High Principal Shawn Miller told parents that the assignment aligned with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills standards. The assignment was to determine if the rights detailed in the Bill of Rights — including the First Amendment rights of protest and free speech — are still as important or impactful now.

Miller’s email also indicated more than one teacher was involved in the assignment. School district officials haven’t publicly identified the teachers.

“The teachers wanted to provide the students with current events to analyze the Bill of Rights,” Miller wrote.

Miller added that the district holds law enforcement in the highest regard.

However, not all parents took an entirely dim view of the assignment.

Alisha Whitfield, whose son was among the eighth-graders at Cooper Junior High given the online assignment, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that she saw the assignment as a way to spark discussion about the First Amendment, freedom of speech and the right to protest.

Whitfield said while she respects law enforcement, it’s more important to have those discussions following Black Lives Matter protests and the death of George Floyd.