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A sixth-grade teacher in Florida is being slammed after he posted a video showing white students bowing down to black students during a Black History Month skit.
Parents and families of children at Howard Middle School in Orlando are now voicing their outrage over the teacher using the students as ‘political props.’
In the controversial video posted to TikTok, Ethan Hooper’s students fan and feed three black classmates before bowing down to them in the skit.
The video is embossed with the words ‘P.O.V. A Florida classroom’ and ‘Black History Month, the shortest month of the year.’
Local outlets have reported that Hooper, 29, has since been placed on leave by administrators and is likely to be ‘terminated.’
A sixth-grade teacher in Florida is being slammed after he posted a video showing white students bowing down to black students during a Black History Month skit
This is Ethan Hooper, the middle school teacher facing backlash for posting a video of his students performing a Black History Month skit
The teacher’s Black History Month video is not the first, however, to have sparked outrage on the internet.
Another video posted by the educator shows his students poking fun at the ‘Stop WOKE Act’ passed in Florida in 2022.
The bill was signed into law by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and seeks to stop any ‘woke’ books or materials in classrooms across the Sunshine State.
In that video, Hooper walks around the room snatching books like ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘The Hate U Give,’ joking that the books preach witchcraft and black history.
In the Black History Month video, students appear to be laughing and ‘in on the joke’ that got the teacher suspended, but parents have still expressed their disgust.
Families have said Hooper used the kids, 11 and 12-year-olds, as ‘political props.’
‘If one of the teachers was using my kid for political gain, that would upset me,’ Howard Middle School dad CJ Johnson told Click Orlando.
‘What if I don’t believe in that, and, you know, that’s not what I’m teaching my kid,’ Jonson continued.
In the Black History Month video, students appear to be laughing and ‘in on the joke’ that got the teacher suspended, but parents have still expressed their disgust
The students are seen feeding their black classmates in the video posted to TikTok
At the end of the video, the fellow classmates are seen bowing down to their black peers in honor of Black History Month
This is Howard Middle School in Orlando, Florida where the video was filmed
Another video posted by the educator shows his students poking fun at the ‘Stop WOKE Act’ passed in Florida in 2022
In that video, Hooper walks around the room snatching books like ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘The Hate U Give,’ joking that the books preach witchcraft and black history
Backlash to the video gained traction after Libs of TikTok shared both the Black History Month TikTok and the ‘Stop WOKE Act’ video.
‘He needs to lose his job now. He can take his issues to adults in the system. Instead, he used children he’s supposed to be caring for on a personal social media account,’ one critic of the video said.
‘I wonder if his activism is a part of the curriculum? I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess, no,’ another person added.
‘This is horribly racist, sad, and pathetic,’ said one Twitter user.
Some online said that while they don’t quite disagree with the video, the situation itself is puzzling.
‘What is a teacher doing on social media during school hours, much less posting his students’ identities?,’ one Twitter user asked.
Following backlash, Orange County Public Schools superintendent Maria Vazquez said she is looking into the situation and expressed her own outrage over the ‘inappropriate’ videos.
‘I am appalled at the behavior and judgment of the teacher who posted the inappropriate videos using his students as political props,’ Vazquez said.
‘This is not free speech — it is the exploitation of our students for political purposes and it will not be tolerated in our school district,’ the superintendent continued.
Students who spoke with WESH said they disagree with the superintendent’s statement and said they didn’t do anything wrong.
‘We all agreed to it,’ said Jaida Jackson- a white student- who appeared in one of the videos. ‘He [Hooper] didn’t really do anything wrong.’
‘What is a teacher doing on social media during school hours, much less posting his students’ identities?,’ one Twitter user asked
Backlash to the video gained traction after Libs of TikTok shared the teachers videos
One person on the social media app applauded Hooper’s video
Some parents agree that the teacher’s actions were justified.
‘The fact that the students really devised the content specifically means that it’s something that matters to them. And to say that they were used as pawns is false,’ said Jackson’s mother, Shauna Thompson.
Despite the support, the Orange County Public Schools’ Media Manager Michael Ollendorf said the teacher’s fate could be sealed.
‘Any employee of who creates videos or other content with students in an effort to exploit them for political purposes will be immediately removed from the classroom, placed on administrative leave and swift action will be taken to terminate employment,’ Ollendorf said in a statement.
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