A West Texas school district has fired a teacher who said online that she was inclined to support racial segregation after watching widely circulated video of a white officer wrestling a black teenager to the ground.
Elementary school teacher Karen Fitzgibbons told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal that she has apologized for her comments.
The Frenship school district, near Lubbock, said in a statement Thursday that it was disappointed by the "thoughtlessness" of the Facebook post.
On Wednesday afternoon, Frenship Independent School District was made aware of a statement posted on a Facebook page by a Frenship ISD employee earlier this week. Frenship ISD is deeply disappointed in the thoughtlessness conveyed by this employee’s post. We find these statements to be extremely offensive, insensitive, and disrespectful to our Frenship community and citizens everywhere. These comments in no way represent the educational environment we have created for our students. The employee whose account is responsible for the post will be relieved of her teaching duties at Frenship ISD. We hold our employees responsible for their public conduct even when they are not on active duty as district employees. Employees are held to the same professional standards in their public use of electronic media as they are for any other public conduct. This recent conduct was unacceptable. Frenship ISD hopes communities, parents and students understand that these remarks do not reflect the views of our district, teachers and staff.
Fitzgibbons said she was angered the corporal in the Dallas suburb of McKinney was forced to resign after pushing the teen to the ground last week. Police had responded to a pool following reports of fighting.
A Florida school district earlier announced a high school principal was reassigned after he expressed support online for the officer.
