A Texas teacher was fired on Thursday over a controversial Facebook post in which she said that black people should be “segregated” in response to the resignation of Texas police officer Eric Casebolt, according to the San Antonio Express-News.
Karen Fitzgibbons, an elementary school teacher in the Frenship Independent School District, wrote on Facebook that she did not think Casebolt needed to resign after a video showed him slamming a black 15-year-old girl to the ground and pointing a gun at teenagers at a community pool in McKinney, Texas, according to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.
She wrote that “the blacks are the ones causing the problems and this ‘racial tension.’ I guess that’s what happens when you flunk out of school and have no education,” according to the Avalanche-Journal.
“I’m almost to the point of wanting them all segregated on one side of town so they can hurt each other and leave the innocent people alone,” she continued. “Maybe the 50s and 60s were really on to something. Now, let the bashing of my true and honest opinion begin….GO! #imnotracist #imsickofthemcausingtrouble #itwasatagedcommunity.”
Frenship ISD announced in a Thursday statement that the district began the process of firing Fitzgibbons over the Facebook post, according to Everything Lubbock.
“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 statement reads. “The employee whose account is responsible for the post will be relieved of her teaching duties at Frenship ISD.”
Fitzgibbons apologized on Wednesday and deleted the post from her Facebook page.
“I apologized to the appropriate people,” she told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, adding that the post “was not directed at any one person or group.”
A principal in the Miami-Dade County school district in Florida also lost his job over comments about the pool party in McKinney, Texas. Alberto Iber, the principal of North Miami Senior High School, was removed from his position on Wednesday after defending Officer Casebolt, according to the Miami Herald.
“He did nothing wrong,” Iber wrote about Casebolt in a Facebook comment, according to the Miami Herald. “He was afraid for his life. I commend him for his actions.”
