Alaska teacher on leave after ‘racially insensitive’ George Floyd comments

More On:

George Floyd

New Orleans zoo cancels police promotion, citing blowback

Paramedics who left teen ‘to die’ needed police escort just to enter lawless CHOP zone

Derek Chauvin requests new trial, claims jury misconduct

NJ cop fired for post berating BLM protesters

An Alaska high school teacher has been placed on administrative leave after telling students that George Floyd would still be alive if he had complied with Minneapolis police.

In a 15-minute video posted on YouTube last week, a masked teacher at Lathrop High School in Fairbanks is seen leading a discussion of high-profile police shootings of African-Americans. When the topic turns to Floyd, the teacher says former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin “abused his authority” and “was complicit in George Floyd’s death.”

“But if George Floyd had, at the beginning when they got him out of the car and went to put him in the police car if he had just sidled into the car and slid it in there, and let them put his legs in, he would be alive today, and you know that’s true,” she adds.

Chauvin was convicted of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter last month after he knelt on Floyd’s neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds last Memorial Day while attempting to subdue and arrest him on a charge of passing counterfeit money.

“If the cops come and they say, ‘I’m taking you to jail,’ then you put your hands behind your back, you let them off you, you get in the cop car and you go and call your parents when they give you your phone call,” the teacher goes on. “That’s what you do to stay alive. Everybody, white, black, brown. I don’t care what color you are. None of that makes a difference. You comply, you do what they say.”

The teacher, a self-described “old white lady,” adds that if she were ever arrested, “I’m putting my hands behind my back and I’m going to jail and I’m calling my husband when I get there, and he’s going to call our attorney. And I’m gonna tell the cops, I’m gonna say, ‘Yes sir,’ and ‘Sir, when you search me, you’re going to find a gun strapped to my ankle, and I’m just letting you know about it now, so that you don’t, you know, so that you can get it and be safe.’”

Later in the video, the teacher tells her students how to dress in order to avoid attracting the attention of cops.

“Look at how you guys are dressed,” she says. “You guys are dressed nicely. You don’t look like thugs, you don’t have your pants down around your knees.”

Lathrop High principal Carly Sween described the remarks as “racially insensitive.” District officials have not formally identified the teacher, but she is referred to in the video as “Ms. Gardner.” Lathrop’s website lists a Connie Gardner as a special education teacher. An email to Gardner’s work address by The Post requesting comment was not immediately returned.

The teacher is eventually challenged by a tutor named Liz who says she’s “a little uncomfortable” about the “insinuation that the way that someone is dressed should garner more response from the police … Police should be trained not to judge people based on those factors and if someone has their pants around their knees doesn’t mean they’re a criminal.”

After the tutor says that “police should also be trained not to kill people even if they don’t comply,” the teacher responds that “If people comply with the police, they have much less chance of being killed by the police … if you value your life and you want to live, you will comply with the police.”

At that point, a parent who describes herself as a “woman of color who has lived in the South … who was born and raised in the South, who experienced racism first-hand, even when I was a child” chimes in.

“Some of the things that you are saying, I feel like you are very uneducated on,” the parent says, “and I don’t feel like you are able to address these things that are going on in the world today.”

Apparently chastened, the teacher finally says: “I’m not going to be, um, you know, this is a class –“

“No, you’re exactly right,” the parent fires back. “It is a class, it is a class, and this is where it should stop. You should stop this conversation. Period.”

Share this article:

Source: Read Full Article

Previous post Shocking dashcam footage shows bike smash into Mercedes doing a U-turn
Next post Crushing Labour defeats in early results from local council wards