teacher fired for assignment

Killeen ISD teacher assigned racist word search to middle schoolers

Editor's note: The following story includes images with racial slurs and language some readers may find offensive. 25 News has decided to release these documents in full for greater transparency with our audience.

KILLEEN, Texas – Killeen ISD and one of its teachers have parted ways after the educator assigned middle schoolers worksheets loaded with racist slurs and language the district called "extremely disturbing."

Tiana Maya, a spokesperson for the district, told 25 News she's unsure if the teacher was fired or resigned, but both parties have "separated". Maya said the educator was recently hired and joined KISD on Aug. 15, 2022.

"Killeen ISD immediately launched an investigation upon learning of an appalling and extremely disturbing assignment distributed by a now-former Rancier Middle School teacher," Dr. John Craft, the district's superintendent, said in a letter on Thursday sent to parents. "There is no argument to condone such an offensive gesture, and we deeply regret the assignment was ever created and distributed to even a small group of students."

The assignment appears to have been created Jan. 11 and included word scrambles and searches rife with epithets titled, "Trigger Words Scramble."

The worksheets tasked students with guessing words based on included definitions, using the slurs in a sentence, and matching slurs with colors.

Among Rancier's population of 785 students, 90 percent identify as a minority with the majority of students classified as Black and Hispanic, according to data from the Texas Department of Education.

Also, 71 percent of middle schoolers there are at risk of dropping out, and the state classifies Rancier students as "economically disadvantaged."

Killeen ISD is the largest school district in Central Texas and the 24th largest district in Texas. Over 45,000 students attend 31 elementary schools, 11 middle schools, 5 high schools, as well as other campuses, according to its website .

Many KISD parents took to social media to express outrage and bewilderment over the assignment – and how it could happen in the first place.

"We regret that this incident occurred," Craft said. "We are committed to dealing with these type of situations expeditiously."

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Texas Middle School Parts Ways With Teacher Who Assigned Racial Slur Worksheets

Senior Reporter, HuffPost

A middle school in Killeen, Texas, has parted ways with a teacher who assigned students worksheets with racial and other derogatory terms.

In a letter to parents Thursday, the Killeen Independent School District said the now-former teacher, whose name has not been released, handed out “an appalling and extremely disturbing assignment.”

The worksheets, which were passed around to about 10 students in a class at Rancier Middle School, included a “Trigger Words Scramble” that featured the N-word, as well as terms like “fat” and “crackhead,” according to Waco-based ABC affiliate KXXV .

“There is no argument to condone such an offensive gesture, and we deeply regret the assignment was ever created and distributed to even a small group of students,” wrote Superintendent John Craft in the district’s letter.

The teacher was a new hire, having joined Killeen ISD in August.

The assignment caused outrage in the local community. About 90% of the school’s 785 students identify as a minority , with most being Black or Hispanic.

In the letter to parents, Craft said the unauthorized assignment “does not support nor reflect” the district’s values.

“The classwork was inappropriate, insensitive, and failed miserably to support our mission,” he wrote.

The district is still investigating the incident, and Craft said that parents of students in the class have been “personally contacted by the campus principal.”

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Eugene 4J teacher put on leave, investigation launched after 'sexual fantasy' assignment

Eugene School District 4J has put Churchill High School's health teacher on paid leave and launched a third-party investigation following parental outrage over a student sex ed assignment .

Following the social media outcry over the assignment, dozens of parents, community members and students came to Eugene School District 4J's board meeting to voice their outrage and demand the district do something.

Teacher and varsity football coach Kirk Miller assigned students in his Health 2: Humanity Sexuality class to write a paragraph or short story about a sexual fantasy demonstrating how someone can "show and receive loving, physical affection without having sex." The assignment instructed students not to include any penetrative or oral sex and to include three items such as romantic music, candles or feathers.

The assignment was part of the OWL: Our Whole Lives health curriculum, a state-approved program 4J implemented in 2018.

Miller will remain on paid administrative leave while the investigation is ongoing.

What is OWL?

OWL is a sexuality education curricula intended to provide comprehensive, fact-based sexual and health education.

The program is age-based and offers interactive workshops and activities on a variety of topics including sexuality, sensuality, self-worth, relationships, gender identity and expression, body boundaries, sexual health and reproduction.

OWL was developed by the Unitarian Universalist Association and the United Church of Christ in the 90s, but its program is not specifically faith-based. It first sparked because the idea promoted by some churches of focusing on "abstinence only" education was deemed insufficient by its creators.

OWL curriculum is featured in a series of seven textbooks split into grades K-1, 4-6, 7-9, 10-12, young adults, adults and older adults. The assignment from Churchill High was part of the OWL book for grades 10-12 .

Other topics for grades 10-12 include: sexual functioning, reproductive and sexual health care, STDs, contraception, gender roles, defining intimacy, masturbation myths and facts, abortion, new reproductive choices, date rape and gender equity.

School board conflict: Eugene 4J board members' alleged use of private chat apps could be illegal

'Professional judgment of our educators'

At the meeting, the superintendent and 4J board members denounced the assignment, saying it was not appropriate for students.

"To be clear, the teacher does not create that lesson themself," Dey said.

Dey said the assignment was taken directly from OWL for grades 10-12. The curriculum offers lesson options for teachers.

"Ultimately, we rely on the professional judgment of our educators to utilize the curriculum as tools in their classroom," Dey said. "What we have determined thus far is that we do not have a record of other classes using this lesson. We'll make it clear to our health educators that this is not a lesson the district endorses or supports delivering."

The assignment has been removed from the course.

On Thursday, the district confirmed it was launching the third-party investigation.

Before the post went viral in a Facebook post, the district was already set to reevaluate its health curriculum as part of a regularly scheduled review process.

The district is scheduled to adopt a new health curriculum before the end of the school year. The district will put together a curriculum plan that will be presented to the board in the coming months, but the board does not vote on non-core curriculum. The superintendent will make the final adoption decision.

Before adoption, according to the instruction materials selection policy, the district will "inform and receive input from affected parents, teachers and administrators" on proposed non-core curricula.

4J parents are able to exclude their child from health class instruction, including specific lessons.

4J communications director Jenna McCulley encouraged parents to reach out any time if they would like to request or review curricula. Parents concerned about their own child's curricula should reach out to their individual school, she said.

Parents want more done

Sheena Bean, a mom of three students in 4J who initially posted the assignment to Facebook , said she was glad the assignment was taken down, but called for a full investigation into Miller.

"If the teacher did indeed choose this, he should be immediately removed from the staffing chart until the full third-party investigation can take place," Bean said. "I cannot see this assignment as anything other than a blatant attempt to promote an immoral sexual agenda to our children."

Others in public comment called for board members to resign.

Board response

All present board members denounced the assignment.

"I do apologize to the students, parents and community members that this affected. Schools are supposed to be a safe place," board member Judy Newman said. "This does not make me back off from wanting to provide our students a comprehensive trauma-informed and fact-based sex education. We do owe that also to our students. This assignment, I would say, does not meet that standard."

"As a mother of five, I was just gassed and upset and mad that a child would have to sit there and look at something like this," board member Laural O'Rourke said. "Our job as board members is to create better outcomes for students, and we know an assignment like this isn't creating a better outcome for students."

"Requiring students to write down and hand in accounts of sexual fantasies, I believe that is abuse of power and an invasion of students' privacy," board member Gordon Lafer said. "Obviously, now we need to go through the rest of the curriculum and make sure there's not something similar."

Alicia Hays is the only current board member who was on the board at the time the OWL curriculum was approved by the district in 2016. She said she couldn't believe the assignment was real when she first saw it.

"I have had the opportunity to sit through that two-hour training on OWL and to look at that curriculum and have never heard of anybody using that (assignment)," Hays said. "We're trying to figure out what's going on, and we will continue to look into that."

Miranda Cyr reports on education for The Register-Guard. You can contact her at  [email protected]  or find her on Twitter  @mirandabcyr .

COVID-19 devastated teacher morale − and it hasn’t recovered

Professor of Political Science, Macalester College

Independent writer and editor, University of Michigan

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Kansas faces the worst teacher shortfall in its history. The 4,000 teaching vacancies Florida faces as the new school year approaches “is more than the population of teachers in 19 of Florida’s smallest counties combined,” the state’s teachers union says. In Vermont, there are days when whole grades of students are sent home because there’s no teacher or sub available .

The teaching profession faces a morale – and staffing – crisis. A National Education Association survey of members found that, as of late 2022, a staggering 55% of educators were thinking of calling it quits .

This is a legacy of COVID-19. Teachers were already unhappy before the pandemic, but the public’s reaction to the education their kids got during that crisis continues to haunt the profession. A Brown University study found teachers’ job satisfaction in 2022 hovered near its lowest level since the 1970s .

As a researcher focused on education policy , along with my colleague Sara Dahill-Brown , we spent the pandemic researching how teachers felt as events unfolded. Between 2020 and 2022, we conducted 164 interviews with a total of 53 leaders of teachers unions and associations from 45 school districts in 14 states. They represented urban, suburban and rural districts and an array of partisan leanings.

The results, published in our new study in Teaching and Teacher Education , show how damaging the pandemic was for K-12 teachers. Thousands subsequently left the profession .

COVID-19 response erodes teachers’ sense of safety

Many teachers were already worried about security because of school shootings. With COVID-19, those fears were compounded by the public’s demand for a fast return to in-person class before public health officials deemed it safe and before money flowed to put best practices in place.

In the summer of 2020, most teacher leaders told us they were “terrified” and “scared to death” because there was “no established criteria or expectations. … It was just jump into the deep and do your best.”

Vaccines and other scientific developments eased that particular anxiety, but as recently as April 2023, nearly 4 in 10 teachers told researchers they were considering looking for another job because they didn’t feel safe at work.

An intense and unrelenting workload

Throughout the 2020-21 school year, parents balanced jobs with children sitting – or running and yelling – alongside them for “Zoom school .” Teachers found themselves with two jobs, thanks to hybrid models in which they taught in person for some students and via videoconference for others.

According to one respondent, they were “expected to teach students in person, but also deliver a meaningful education experience to those same students when they were at home.” Another shared that “teachers were working many, many, many more hours than they had ever put into a face-to-face environment,” clocking “12 to 16 hours a day and weekends” and providing feedback “until 10 o’clock at night.”

The result was exhaustion that one leader described as “June-tired in October.” And that was merely an unusual bump in their already intense workloads; teachers in nonpandemic times typically work 53 hours per week on average . That’s seven more hours than the average working adult.

Lackluster leadership and changing expectations

The pandemic also exacerbated festering dissatisfaction with school and district leadership. Teachers felt misled, ill-informed and unconsidered. They were rarely asked for input and forced to make radical changes to education, respondents told us.

Teachers wanted “consistency,” “straight answers” and to stop “switching on a dime,” they told us. Plans changed so frequently that one said “an email written on Monday” was “stale by Wednesday.” Another said administrators would say “the right things in public” to signal “compassion and care for teachers. But the actions are different. And it’s really taking a toll on teachers.”

One union leader told us: “You see parents’ comments on social media, there are a lot more of ‘You just need to shut up and get back to the classroom. You’re lazy. You’re not doing your job.’”

Another echoed this: “Historically educators have been an under-respected profession. But it’s much, much worse now. It’s not just that they’re disrespected, they’re villainized.”

Jobs and budget cuts raise new fears

The majority (68%) of study respondents were concerned from early in the pandemic about budgets or job security. Forty percent feared enrollment losses related to COVID-19 would make those worries worse. And many worried that “schools don’t have the budget to do all of the safety procedures that science tells us is necessary.”

All of this persisted even as Congress, in April 2020, set aside more than US$13 billion for K-12 emergency relief. By the end of 2020, then-President Donald Trump pledged $50 billion more to help schools reopen .

These funds did hold off catastrophic cuts, but researchers and policymakers both warned of a fiscal cliff facing districts if they didn’t prepare for the point at which that spigot would run dry. And, indeed, examples now abound of just that reality, as seen by mass job cuts in St. Paul, Minnesota , Houston and Ann Arbor, Michigan , among others.

With the worst of the pandemic behind us, resources are being reduced despite ongoing needs. This recipe – burned-out teachers quitting and some who chose to stay being fired – has the entire profession reeling .

Avenues for boosting morale

There are several ways to boost morale, but most require more investment, not less.

Teachers say they need better pay – to the tune of a minimum starting salary of $60,000 a year – along with stability in health and retirement benefits. The National Education Association says the average starting salary now is $44,530 . The NEA is also advocating for better conditions for the paraprofessionals who assist them in the classrooms. And teachers want more say in what they teach .

Short of these changes, we don’t see school systems being able to stop the exodus of educators from the profession – and they will continue to lose their best and brightest as a result.

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Florida teacher says she was fired for giving zeros to students who didn't turn in work

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida history teacher says she was fired for refusing to give half-credit to students who didn’t turn in their assignments.

She wrote a goodbye message to her eighth graders on a whiteboard saying, "Bye Kids, Mrs. Tirado loves you and wishes you the best in life! I have been fired for refusing to give you a 50% for not handing anything in. 💓 Mrs. Tirado."

Diane Tirado says her school along Florida’s Treasure Coast had a “no zero” policy, requiring teachers to give students no less than a 50-percent grade on assignments.

Tirado tells television station WPTV that she was fired in mid-September when she refused to follow the policy after several students didn’t turn in a homework project.

“What if they don’t turn anything in?" Tirado said she asked administrators. "'We give them a 50.' I go, 'Oh, we don’t.' This is not kosher.'”

No specific cause was given in her termination letter from the principal at West Gate school, since Tirado was still on probation having been recently hired.

“I’m so upset because we have a nation of kids that are expecting to get paid and live their life just for showing up and it’s not real," Tirado said.

The principal deferred comment to the school district.

A spokeswoman for St. Lucie Public Schools says there is no district policy prohibiting teachers from giving a grade of zero.

Kerry Padrick, chief information officer, sent the following statement:

"Diane Tirado was employed as a teacher for St. Lucie Public Schools (SLPS) from July 30, 2018 to September 14, 2018.  She was contracted as a teacher on probationary status, and was terminated shortly after one month of classroom instruction.

SLPS values the importance of maintaining a high-quality teaching staff who support students’ individualized learning needs; who understand the value of forming appropriate and positive relationships with students, colleagues, and parents; and who provide accurate and productive feedback to students on assignments. Wavering on the expectations of quality is not an option.

There is no District or individual school policy prohibiting teachers from recording a grade of zero for work not turned in. The District’s Uniform Grading System utilizes letter grades A-F, numerical grades 100-0 and grade point averages from 4-0."

When asked specifically about the wording of "no zeros" on the West Gate student and parent handbook, Padrick said:

"Some classroom teachers and school faculties have discussed the range of points for work submitted in each grading category. 

This scale outlines a 10-point range for each letter grade:  A = 90 to 100 B = 80 to 89 C = 70-79 D = 60-69  F = 50-59

A zero is noted on the scale for work not attempted or work that is incomplete."

“A grade in Mrs. Tirado’s class is earned," Tirado said.

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Florida teacher fired over 'inappropriate' lesson: 'I didn't do anything wrong'

A teacher in Florida is appealing his termination after being fired over what the district calls an "inappropriate" assignment about school violence, but the teacher says he was just teaching the students how to stay safe.

ORLANDO, Fla. - A teacher in Florida is appealing his termination after being fired over what the district calls an "inappropriate" assignment about school violence, but the teacher says he was just teaching the students how to stay safe.

Psychology teacher Jeffrey Keene spoke with FOX 35 News about a notice he received from the Orange County School District to end his employment at Dr. Phillips High School. 

"When they said you have the option to resign without violating your contract, I said, ‘I didn’t do anything wrong.’ I said, ‘If I did, tell me what it is.’ They said, ‘We can’t do that.’ I said, 'In that case, since I don’t know what I did wrong, you can go ahead and terminate me without cause." 

Keene said there was going to be an active shooter drill at the school and thought he could tie it into a psychology lesson. However, part of the lesson included having the students write their own obituaries. "If they died 24 hours from now, what would they do differently than they did yesterday? And that’s to get them to get rid of all the fluff and show them what’s important in the world. It wasn’t to say, 'You’re going to die, and let's stress you out,'" he explained. 

On Thursday, the teacher told FOX 35 that he plans to appeal his termination. 

Florida teacher plans to appeal firing after mass shooting assignment

A psychology teacher at a Central Florida High School said he was fired over a lesson plan that asked students to write a reflection paper about how they'd react to a school shooting, and to write their own obituary as if it was their "last day."

However, he said a student asked to talk to a counselor, after getting upset. "I put a disclaimer on the bottom of the lesson saying this is in no way to upset you." 

MORE NEWS: VIDEO: Famous smiling shark 'Snooty' greets diver off coast of Florida

That happened during the first period. During his second-period class, he said a supervisor came to observe. "I said, ‘Who knows what you do in the restroom if there’s an active shooter?’ and no one knew. So I started to explain the process, and she shut me down." 

Keene said he was just trying to teach the students how to stay safe. "I was stunned. I was talking to students about the world they live in. gun safety, active shooters."

MORE NEWS: Florida woman says French bulldogs were stolen from front yard: ‘They are my whole life’

An school district spokesperson released a statement, which read, "Dr. Phillips High School families were informed that a teacher gave an inappropriate assignment about school violence. Administration immediately investigated, and the probationary employee has been terminated." 

The spokesperson said the district wasn't able to talk about the details of the case. We asked Keene if he regretted doing the lesson, to which he replied, "No." Then we asked if he would do it again, knowing the consequences, and he replied, "Absolutely." 

Keene, who started working in Orange County in January and has been a teacher since 2008, said he is appealing his termination. 

Florida teacher allegedly fired after discussing sexuality with students

A Florida middle school teacher is claiming that she was fired in March for discussing sexuality with her students.

Casey Scott, a first-year art teacher, told NBC affiliate WBBH-TV on Tuesday that the events that led to her termination started when students began asking questions about her sexuality. Scott, who is married to a man, said she told her students that she is pansexual, meaning that she’s attracted to all genders.

She said LGBTQ students then began asking if they could create art expressing their own sexualities and identities, and that she hung it on her classroom door. Scott said she was told by school officials in Lee County — which is roughly 40 miles north of Naples — to remove the artwork. She said she was then sent home and fired over the phone.

“A discussion happened in class and because of that, now I’m fired,” Scott told WBBH-TV .

The Lee County School District said in a statement to NBC News that Scott was fired because she "did not follow the state mandated curriculum." The district also shared complaints from parents who were concerned about the conversation and the artwork, according to the NBC affiliate.

Scott's firing comes amid a nationwide discussion over whether LGBTQ issues or identities should be discussed at school.

The debate was ignited earlier this year by the newly enacted Florida law, which critics have dubbed the "Don't Say Gay" bill.

Officially titled the  Parental Rights in Education bill , the legislation bans teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity “in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the bill into law in late March, several days after Scott's firing. The law takes effect in July.

Proponents of the measure have contended that it gives parents more discretion over what their children learn in school and say LGBTQ issues are “not age-appropriate” for young students.

Kevin Daly, who is the president-elect of the Teachers Association of Lee County, told WBBH-TV that the new bill could pose problems for educators and suggested it led to Scott's firing.

“There is kind of a heightened state of where is the boundary? And what are employees supposed to do? Or allowed to do, when a topic comes up in discussion,” he said.

LGBTQ teachers in Florida have previously told NBC News that they fear talking about their families or LGBTQ issues more broadly with the new law in place.

Beyond Florida, 19 other states have introduced similar legislation this year that would prohibit how educators can talk about or teach LGBTQ issues in school, according to the Movement Advancement Project, or MAP, an LGBTQ think tank that has been tracking the bills.

Follow  NBC Out  on  Twitter ,  Facebook  &  Instagram .

Matt Lavietes is a reporter for NBC Out.

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Teacher placed on leave for asking students to write about their sexual fantasies.

A health teacher in Oregon has been placed on leave after parents raised concerns about assignments asking students to describe their sexual fantasies and which students in the class they would like to have sexual relations with. 

Health teacher Kirk Miller at Churchill High School of Eugene asked students in his Health 2 - Human Sexuality course to complete an assignment titled "Fantasy Story" through an online learning platform. The assignment, which students received on Jan. 12, instructed them to write at least one paragraph about their sexual fantasies by this Wednesday. 

One parent  posted  a screenshot of the assignment to Facebook last week, calling it "inappropriate" and "sickening" for Miller, who also serves as a football coach, to give students the assignment. The parent also questioned why an adult male felt "entitled" to know the sexual fantasies of a group of minors.

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"Can you [imagine] having to look your teacher or coach in the eye knowing he has knowledge of your most intimate imaginations," she wrote. "This has NO BUSINESS in school or anywhere else."

In the assignment, students were told not to write about any fantasies that included any form of penetration or oral sex and to exclude all forms of intercourse that result in a sexually transmitted illness. 

"You will choose 3 items (romantic music, candles, massage oil, feather, feather boa, flavored syrup, etc.) to use in your story," the assignment reads. "Your story should show that you can show and receive loving physical affection without having sex."

The Eugene 4J School District, which oversees the high school, placed Miller on leave and launched a third-party investigation after dozens of parents and community members objected to the assignment, The Register-Guard  reported. 

The school district and high school did not immediately respond to The Christian Post's request for comment. The school district confirmed it is reviewing the "OWL" curriculum, which stands for "Our Whole Lives."

The district adopted the OWL curriculum in 2016 and implemented it in 2018. District officials stated that they provide parents with a syllabus and allow them to opt their children out.

The OWL curriculum appears to have been originally published in connection with the United Church of Christ and the Unitarian Universalist Association and was first implemented in the 1990s. The United Church of Christ  states  that OWL is a set of curriculums for seven age groups initially developed for "the affirming and supportive setting of our churches."

Superintendent Andy Dey said the assignment was taken from the OWL curriculum for grades 10 through 12. 

"Ultimately, we rely on the professional judgment of our educators to utilize the curriculum as tools in their classroom," Dey was quoted as saying by The Register-Guard. "What we have determined thus far is that we do not have a record of other classes using this lesson. We'll make it clear to our health educators that this is not a lesson the district endorses or supports delivering."

Oregon-based KEZI reported on March 9 that the superintendent had given the approval to replace the old curriculum by the end of the year. 

Another assignment from the same health class called "With Whom Would You Do It?" involved a spinning wheel labeled with various sexual acts. When the wheel was spun and landed on a sexual act, students would write the initials of a male or female classmate they wanted to do that sexual activity with. 

"My daughter was very, very, very uncomfortable in the classroom," Justin McCall, the father of a female student in the class, told  KEZI  on Monday. "Especially when he put up the generated spinning wheel and it had anal penetration and oral sex up there. Her and her best friend did not participate in that. But they still got graded."

However, Jennifer Geller, a parent and former member of the Eugene School District 4J School Board, vouched for the curriculum. Geller was on the board in 2016 when it approved the curriculum, and her children also went through OWL programs at their church. 

"There's a range of curriculums out there," Geller said. "And, from my perspective, and my experience, this seemed like an age appropriate, comprehensive sexuality program that served my children and me well." 

Parents had recently expressed similar concerns about the content included in a sexual education curriculum at a school district in Florida. 

As  CP  previously reported, the Hillsborough County School Board held a hearing in November after opponents of a sexual education curriculum adopted in September filed over 3,000 petitions. 

Bay News 9 reporter Angie Angers shared a copy of the petition in a Twitter  post  last year, which included complaints about the seventh-grade curriculum connecting students to Planned Parenthood for abstinence advice. Parents also objected to the use of graphic drawings of genitalia intended for discussion. 

Parents also objected to the inclusion of amaze.org in the curriculum materials, noting that it includes controversial video lessons about gender identity. Health Education Supervisor Ashlee Cappucci clarified during the November hearing that those videos were not included in the lesson plans. 

Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at:  [email protected] . Follower her on Twitter:  @Samantha_Kamman

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Churchill teacher who assigned 'sexual fantasy' story on leave pending investigation

by Cameron Walker, NBC 16

EUGENE, Ore. — The teacher who assigned students to write about a sexual fantasy for a health class at Churchill High School is on administrative leave pending an investigation, a Eugene School District 4J spokesperson confirmed Friday.

The district said an "outside third party" is investigating, but did not provide details.

"I believe that investigation will look into any and all concerns/allegations that have been raised, and not just the one assignment that's been circulated on social media," 4J School Board member Gordon Lafer said in an email.

The assignment was given to Churchill students in a class called "Health 2 - Human Sexuality." It asked students who were absent to "write a short story of a paragraph or two. This story is a sexual fantasy that will have NO Penetration of any kind or oral sex (no way passing an STI). You will choose 3 items (romantic music, candles, massage oil, feather, feather boa, flavored syrup, etc.) to use in your story. Your story should show that you can show and receive loving physical affection without having sex."

The district confirmed the assignment was given to students, but pulled it from the syllabus after a screenshot spread on social media and parents raised concerns.

Some of those same parents spoke at a 4J School Board meeting Wednesday night , expressing anger and frustration at the assignment and the district's response.

"This assignment should never have been given," Lafer said. "To require students to write down and share sexual fantasies as a requirement of a course is inappropriate and, I believe, an abuse of authority and invasion of students' privacy... One of the parents who spoke at the meeting stressed that no one yet had apologized to the Churchill students who received this assignment. He was right. For whatever an after-the-fact apology is worth, I offered my apology at the Board meeting, as did several other Board members."

In a prepared statement at Wednesday's Board meeting, 4J Superintendent Andy Dey said the assignment was "pulled directly from the Our Whole Lives Sexuality Education for Grades 10-12, page 90."

However, Melanie Davis, program manager for Our Whole Lives, called the assignment an "unauthorized, out-of-context adaptation of a facilitated group activity."

Our newsroom is working to get a copy of the textbook.

Superintendent's full statement at Board Meeting:

Good evening,

Tonight, I’ll keep my comments short and focused.

Many here this evening and those tuning in are interested in hearing more information or sharing their opinions regarding the Human Sexuality assignment from Churchill High School, and subsequent rumors about additional concerning lessons.

Here in Eugene School District 4J we have a long tradition of prioritizing site-based decision making, academic freedom and effective administrative oversight. There is no question there were failures in this particular instance.

What I can share is that following an initial internal review we have identified shortcomings that allowed for the delivery of this lesson; one that the district does not recommend. To be clear, the teacher did not create that lesson themself. The assignment in question is pulled directly from the Our Whole Lives Sexuality Education for Grades 10 – 12, page 90. There are additional rumors of spinning wheels with salacious acts, that have not been substantiated or reflected in the materials the teacher used. We have been able to confirm an online virtual randomizer wheel with various non-sexual activities on it was utilized following the Our Whole Lives lesson on pg. 172.

When curriculum is adopted, our curriculum team provides our faculty with guidance around what lessons align with state standards and provides tools on how those can be applied. Ultimately, we rely on the professional judgment of our educators to utilize the curriculum as tools in their classroom.

We have found that in this case there was inadequate oversight and subsequent supports around the standards required and the best methods to meet those standards relying on supplemental lessons, rather than following the Our Whole Lives curriculum text verbatim.

What we have determined thus far is that we do not have record of other classes using this lesson, and have made it clear to our health educators that this is not a lesson the district endorses or supports delivering. As the district is in the process of a curriculum review and new adoption, this lesson will not be used again.

Moving forward, the district will ensure that our faculty understand and follow district policy and state law by providing families information about health curriculum, which will now include clear unit information to allow for informed decision-making for all families on their student’s participation in some or all of the curriculum.

At this time, I would like to thank those that have shared their concerns with us. The district shares these concerns and immediately acted to address concerns so that we ensure this situation is not repeated.

Yesterday (May 5), reports began to surface online that a middle school teacher in Cape Coral, Florida had been fired after allegedly instructing her young students to participate in an assignment about gender identity.

The art teacher, Casey Scott, said, ​​” A discussion happened in class and because of that, now I’m fired.”

According to Scott, several of her students had previously come out to her and disclosed their sexual orientation. “A lot of the kids came up to me like, ‘Oh, well, I’m non-binary ‘ and a couple of kids said, ‘Oh, well, I’m bi.’ One kid said they’re gay,” she said.

Scott told her students that she was pansexual.

She proceeded to have the kids share their preferences by drawing Pride flags depicting how they identify , reportedly because they had already been expressive about their sexuality.

After the students had drawn their Pride flags , Scott decorated her classroom door with their artwork. Scott revealed that once the artwork was hung, the pictures began to draw a great deal of negative attention from faculty and staff who saw the pictures while walking through the hallways. The teacher says that her colleagues recommended that she take the artwork down .

“I went over to the recycling bin. I grabbed all their flags and all the kids were staring at me, and I crumbled their flags in front of them,” Scott said.

Scott was then sent home. Next, administrators at the Lee County School District notified the art teacher that her contract was being terminated . The district said that Scott went against her required curriculum teachings.

The teacher did an interview with a local NBC affiliate where she expressed that her young students were upset about her firing and supported her views. The school district fired back, saying that parents saw the assignment and discussion as inappropriate .

A current Florida bill prohibits these types of discussions in classrooms for children between the grades of pre-K through third.

Although Scott taught middle schoolers, Kevin Daly of the Lee County Teachers Union said Scott’s firing was justified because she was still in a probationary period .

Teacher fired for assignment asking students 'How Comfortable' they are around blacks, Arabs

 A Florida middle school teacher was fired after giving students an assignment that was deemed inappropriate by district officials.

The supplemental assignment that was given to students at Fox Chapel Middle School instructed them to circle a response for a series of questions asking them their comfort level in various situations. Some situations included being approached by a group of "young black men" on the street, sitting next to an "Arab" on an airplane and finding out the new pastor at your church is a woman.

The Hernando County School District did not identify the teacher but it said in a statement, "in no way, does that assignment meet the standards of appropriate instructional material".

"'How comfy are you if you see a group of black men walking to you on the street?' That's completely inappropriate. In no world, whatsoever, is that OK to question a child on," said Jennifer Block, mother of a 12-year-old girl who was given the assignment.

"I thought it was very inappropriate. I thought some of them were racist. I thought some of them were sexist. I thought it was completely intolerable," said Tori Drews, a 6th grader.

Drews received the assignment during her 7th period Leader In Me class. She said they were learning about accepting people's differences. Drews said the teacher handed out the assignment to the class.

"There were children that were saying this is wrong. 'Why are we doing this?' 'Does this have a reason?' She was going yeah this is kind of wrong ... maybe I should take it back," Drews said. "Kids were asking if they could share it with their parents. She was like, 'No. Don't show your mom. Don't take that home. I'm taking it back up,'."

District officials said the teacher joined the middle school in January. Officials said she was still under her probationary period when they fired her.

"I believe that it was very wrong what she did. That she didn't ask anybody before she gave it out. But I think that maybe she should have been put on a break and had like another training on something like that," Drews said.

Drews's mom agrees with the punishment.

"I think that it was probably best," Block said.

WFTS reached out to the teacher for a response but have yet to get a reply.

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Florida Teacher Fired After Having Students Write Obituaries Ahead of Active Shooter Drill

"If you can't talk real to [the students], then what's happening in this environment? In my mind, I've done nothing wrong," teacher Jeffrey Keene said

A Florida teacher was fired after he asked his class to write their own obituaries ahead of an active shooter drill on campus — an assignment which the Orange County School District called "inappropriate," according to several news sites.

Psychology teacher Jeffrey Keene told Fox 35 Orlando that he wanted to tie an upcoming active shooter drill at Dr. Phillips High School into a psychology lesson, and came up with the idea of having his 11th and 12th graders write their own obituaries.

"If they died 24 hours from now, what would they do differently than they did yesterday? And that's to get them to get rid of all the fluff and show them what's important in the world," Keene, 63, explained to the news station.

"It wasn't to say, 'You're going to die, and let's stress you out,'" he added, noting that he put a disclaimer at the bottom of the lesson saying that it was not meant to upset them.

Keene, who had been working as a teacher since 2008 and was hired by the high school in January, said he received a notice to end his employment by the Orange County School District soon after the assignment.

"When they said you have the option to resign without violating your contract, I said, 'I didn't do anything wrong,'" he told the outlet. "I said, 'If I did, tell me what it is.' They said, 'We can't do that.' I said, 'In that case, since I don't know what I did wrong, you can go ahead and terminate me without cause.' "

However, he told NBC News that he doesn't regret setting up the assignment.

"If you can't talk real to [the students], then what's happening in this environment?" Keene said. "In my mind, I've done nothing wrong."

RELATED VIDEO: Nashville Police Say Training 'Kicked in' amid Horror of School Shooting: 'Just Wanted to Save Kids'

The Orange County School District released a statement, per NBC News , that said: "Dr. Phillips High School families were informed that a teacher gave an inappropriate assignment about school violence. Administration immediately investigated and the probationary employee has been terminated."

PEOPLE has reached out to the Orange County School District, and has not yet received a response.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE 's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Keene told Fox 35 Orlando that he is planning to appeal the termination. He said that if he had the choice, he would do it all again.

"I don't think I did anything incorrectly," Keene told NBC News . "I know hindsight is 20/20, but I honestly didn't think a 16-, 17-, 18-year-old would be offended or upset by talking about something we're already talking about."

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19 Facts About Tim Walz, Harris’s Pick for Vice President

Mr. Walz, the governor of Minnesota, worked as a high school social studies teacher and football coach, served in the Army National Guard and chooses Diet Mountain Dew over alcohol.

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By Simon J. Levien and Maggie Astor

• Published Aug. 6, 2024 Updated Aug. 7, 2024, 8:31 a.m. ET

Follow live updates on the 2024 election .

Until recently, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota was a virtual unknown outside of the Midwest, even among Democrats. But his stock rose fast in the days after President Biden withdrew from the race, clearing a path for Ms. Harris to replace him and pick Mr. Walz as her No. 2.

Here’s a closer look at the Democrats’ new choice for vice president.

1. He is a (very recent) social media darling . Mr. Walz has enjoyed a groundswell of support online from users commenting on his Midwestern “dad vibes” and appealing ordinariness.

2. He started the whole “weird” thing. It was Mr. Walz who labeled former President Donald J. Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, “weird” on cable television just a couple of weeks ago. The description soon became a Democratic talking point.

3. He named a highway after Prince and signed the bill in purple ink. “I think we can lay to rest that this is the coolest bill signing we’ll ever do,” he said as he put his name on legislation declaring a stretch of Highway 5 the “Prince Rogers Nelson Memorial Highway” after the musician who had lived in Minnesota.

4. He reminds you of your high school history teacher for a reason. Mr. Walz taught high school social studies and geography — first in Alliance, Neb., and then in Mankato, Minn. — before entering politics.

5. He taught in China in 1989 and speaks some Mandarin. He went to China for a year after graduating from college and taught English there through a program affiliated with Harvard University.

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DPS reinstates Texas Ranger fired for Uvalde shooting response

Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw said he made the decision after the Uvalde district attorney found no criminal wrongdoing and asked that Ranger Chris Kindell be allowed to return to his job.

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Editor's note: This story contains explicit language.

The Texas Department of Public Safety has reinstated a Texas Ranger who the agency previously attempted to fire for failing to respond appropriately to the deadly Robb Elementary School shooting.

DPS Director Steve McCraw said in a Friday letter to Christopher Ryan Kindell that Kindell could return to his former position now that the Texas Rangers had completed their criminal investigation of the shooting. No criminal charges were filed against any DPS officers. McCraw said that Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell, who convened a grand jury in January to investigate law enforcement’s delayed response to the May 2022 shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers, requested the reinstatement.

Mitchell confirmed that she made that request, noting that rangers in Real County, Val Verde County and Maverick County had been covering Kindell’s territory while he was suspended.

“Ranger Kindell has worked diligently to serve the citizens of Uvalde County for approximately seven years and has been the lead investigator on several complicated cases, from child sexual abuse to murder cases,” Mitchell said in an email. “It was time that Ranger Kindell got back to work serving Uvalde County.”

Mitchell did not share what evidence about Kindell the grand jury considered, stating it is illegal to disclose any information about grand jury proceedings. The Austin American-Statesman first reported Kindell’s reinstatement.

The massacre was the deadliest school shooting in Texas history. Law enforcement officers waited 77 minutes to confront the lone gunman, even though 376 law enforcement officers responded to the scene. The shooter was ultimately killed by a Border Patrol tactical unit.

Kindell was notified in January 2023 that he would be fired. In his termination letter, McCraw said Kindell’s actions “did not conform to department standards” and that he should have recognized the incident as an active shooter situation, not a barricaded subject situation. Kindell was given five days to appeal the decision.

Since January, Kindell has received his annual salary of close to $100,000, while on suspension.

On Friday, McCraw wrote that he decided to change his initial decision “based upon a review of the completed Texas Ranger criminal investigation” of the shooting, “an internal investigation on DPS officers who responded to the attack, and subsequent to the review of the Uvalde Grand Jury.”

The grand jury in June indicted two former Uvalde school police officers on charges of child endangerment. Those two indictments, against former Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo and former school police officer Adrian Gonzales, represent the only criminal charges filed after the school shooting. No DPS officers were indicted.

Because grand jury investigations in Texas are secret, it is not entirely clear what evidence the jury considered, though The Texas Tribune confirmed that McCraw was among those who appeared as witnesses.

McCraw has previously blamed local officers for law enforcement’s botched response, which was the subject of a January U.S. Department of Justice report that documented numerous failures in leadership and coordination. A Texas House special committee report also criticized state and federal law enforcement officers’ inaction.

A total of 91 DPS officers responded to the incident, alongside local police, U.S. Border Patrol members and Uvalde school police.

Kindell's role in law enforcement's response is not entirely clear. CNN reported that Kindell was inside the school's hallways while shots were fired in a classroom and that Kindell then attempted to negotiate with the gunman. A New York Times investigation found that Kindell was seen on surveillance footage delivering a set of keys to other officers at 12:36 p.m., 14 minutes before the Border Patrol team entered the classroom and killed the gunman.

Kindell joined DPS in 2006 and worked in the criminal division before becoming a ranger in 2016. He had been assigned several high-profile investigations. He could not be reached for comment on Monday.

Families of the victims of the shooting have expressed outrage over what they say is a lack of accountability and transparency following the shooting.

Friday’s letter was met with a similar sense of frustration.

“Not only is it sick and disgusting that he is reinstated…..Our fucking D.A. REQUESTED IT! How much lower will any of these people go to spit on our faces!?!?” Brett Cross, whose son was among those killed, said on social media.

Kindell was one of two DPS officers who were notified they’d be fired following the school shooting. The other, Sgt. Juan Maldonado, decided to retire. A third trooper who was under investigation retired before the investigation was complete. Four remaining troopers who were internally investigated were eventually cleared .

The full program is now LIVE for the 2024 Texas Tribune Festival , happening Sept. 5–7 in downtown Austin. Explore the program featuring more than 100 unforgettable conversations on topics covering education, the economy, Texas and national politics, criminal justice, the border, the 2024 elections and so much more. See the full program.

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Teacher fired for assignment asking students 'How Comfortable' they are around blacks, Arabs

 A Florida middle school teacher was fired after giving students an assignment that was deemed inappropriate by district officials.

The supplemental assignment that was given to students at Fox Chapel Middle School instructed them to circle a response for a series of questions asking them their comfort level in various situations. Some situations included being approached by a group of "young black men" on the street, sitting next to an "Arab" on an airplane and finding out the new pastor at your church is a woman.

The Hernando County School District did not identify the teacher but it said in a statement, "in no way, does that assignment meet the standards of appropriate instructional material".

"'How comfy are you if you see a group of black men walking to you on the street?' That's completely inappropriate. In no world, whatsoever, is that OK to question a child on," said Jennifer Block, mother of a 12-year-old girl who was given the assignment.

"I thought it was very inappropriate. I thought some of them were racist. I thought some of them were sexist. I thought it was completely intolerable," said Tori Drews, a 6th grader.

Drews received the assignment during her 7th period Leader In Me class. She said they were learning about accepting people's differences. Drews said the teacher handed out the assignment to the class.

"There were children that were saying this is wrong. 'Why are we doing this?' 'Does this have a reason?' She was going yeah this is kind of wrong ... maybe I should take it back," Drews said. "Kids were asking if they could share it with their parents. She was like, 'No. Don't show your mom. Don't take that home. I'm taking it back up,'."

District officials said the teacher joined the middle school in January. Officials said she was still under her probationary period when they fired her.

"I believe that it was very wrong what she did. That she didn't ask anybody before she gave it out. But I think that maybe she should have been put on a break and had like another training on something like that," Drews said.

Drews's mom agrees with the punishment.

"I think that it was probably best," Block said.

WFTS reached out to the teacher for a response but have yet to get a reply.

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Teacher fired for "who lives/who dies" assignment

Source: https://www.nbc11news.com/2023/09/14/teacher-removed-over-inappropriate-nuclear-fallout-shelter-assignment/?outputType=amp

A teacher was suspended for giving that "who do you save?" assignment. Is it just me, or is that crazy?

I completed a functionally identical task in high school. The idea was to uncover and interrogate one's own internal social hierarchies and judgments of others. To question the ways our society decides who has value and who doesn't. It's a challenging, critical thinking task that builds insight, empathy, and civic-mindedness. But apparently that is "wildly inappropriate" and reason for getting fired now??

Do you agree that this is an inappropriate activity for secondary schoolers? Or disagree? Why yes, why no?

EDIT: I see now that it was 5TH GRADERS. Yeaahhhhh, in my opinion, that group is too young for content like that. Is 5th grade part of middle school in some states? I can see this assignment working with 8th graders. 5th is too soon.

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