A black teacher in a Florida middle school has been suspended after making video clips of his students using them as political props. One of those videos shows white students acting as black students’ slaves.
“I shall not read books,” said teacher Ethan Hooper in one video clip shown on TikTok, with his students immediately repeating the line. He follows up with “Books are bad” and “If I read, it’s approved by the feds.” He criticized a student for reading a dictionary. In a clip, Hooper, garbed in a “Black Teachers Matter” T-shirt, mocks students in his middle school for reading “Harry Potter” (because it promotes witchcraft), and other books such as “Holes” (he said about that book, “I’m gonna dig up a hole and bury this book in it”).
He made white students behave like slaves for Black History Month. A short clip shows white students taking black students’ jackets as they enter the room, feeding them, and worshiping them while on their knees. In essence, the white students were acting like slaves. “This Florida teacher made students participate in a skit for black history month where white students act like servants for black students,” said Libs of TikTok.
In response to the videos, the superintendent of the Orange County Public Schools said, “I am appalled at the behavior and judgment of the teacher who posted the inappropriate videos using his students as political props […] 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 school district’s media manager said that “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.”
The teacher, Ethan Hooper, has taught in the Orange County Public Schools for more than five years.
