Story at a glance
- A highschool teacher in Fairbanks, Alaska, has been placed on administrative leave over ‘racially insensitive” comments made during a Zoom discussion regarding the death of George Floyd and police shootings involving Black people.
- The teacher, who has not been fully identified, urged her students in a 15-minute video posted to YouTube, to comply with the police should they ever encounter a situation where they are either “justly” or “unjustly” stopped.
- “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 said.
A high school teacher in Fairbanks, Alaska, has been placed on administrative leave over “racially insensitive” comments made during a Zoom discussion regarding the death of George Floyd and police shootings involving Black people.
The teacher, who has not been fully identified, urged her students in a 15-minute video posted to YouTube to comply with the police should they ever encounter a situation where they are either “justly” or “unjustly” stopped, instructing students at one point in the conversation how to properly dress.
While she admitted that former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was “complicit” in Floyd’s death, she intimated that Chauvin’s actions were only a factor.
“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 said.
“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.”
Chauvin, who knelt on George Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes, was convicted of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter last month.
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The teacher went on to describe how she would interact with police if she was ever stopped.
“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.’”
Lathrop High School Principal Carly Sween wrote in a letter to parents that the teacher’s comments were “racially insensitive” and committed to “ongoing inclusivity training for staff,” Alaska Public Radio (APR) reported.
Yumi McCulloch, a district spokesperson, said the teacher has been placed on administrative leave while an investigation is conducted, according to APR.
A parent, who described herself as a woman of color, weighed in near the end of the video, telling the teacher she appeared to be “uneducated” on some of the issues she was discussing. After a brief exchange, the parent asked her to end the discussion.
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