An Orlando teacher was placed on leave after parents discovered he would involve his students in several TikTok skits, which included white students bowing down to black students.
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A Howard Middle School teacher, Ethan Hooper, posted videos to his personal TikTok page. According to the New York Post, Hooper taught language at the school, and one of the videos shows several white students feeding, fanning, and bowing down to their black classmates in honor of Black History Month. Another video showed Hooper’s students criticizing Gov. Ron De Santis’ policies on books deemed unsuitable for children.
Florida teacher makes students participate in a series of tiktoks mocking the FL Dept of Education for removing books from schools containing pornography, CRT, and gender ideology pic.twitter.com/i8BzdhFsbw
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 17, 2023
This Florida teacher made students participate in a skit for black history month where white students act like servants for black students pic.twitter.com/g29SgNd3pn
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 17, 2023
Hooper snatches several “banned” books from students as they read them in the video and announces that any books about race or black history have been removed from schools. Hooper was accused of forcing politics in the classroom and recruiting students to participate after parents saw the videos.
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After the video went viral on Twitter, several users had different opinions about the clip and expressed concerns about what students are learning in the classroom.
Ik its kinda just a fact of life now but pretty hard to grapple with the fact that a really large amount of people in the US are now pro-banning books. They really see a video like this and think the teacher is the villain lol insane https://t.co/4U8GW0mgwc
— Mason (@masonscotcam) February 19, 2023
My wife has been told not to post pictures of her students at school on social media.. even when she gives them awards.
This “teacher” uses his kids for political commercials.
He needs to be fired. https://t.co/ovjimrpD92— Frog Capital (@FrogNews) February 18, 2023
A teacher enrgaging with kids both entertaining them and getting a point across at the same time? Imagine the harm https://t.co/BP8z0fQXAn
— Emerson (@Emersory) February 18, 2023
Another concern was Hooper posting his student’s identity on his personal page which many schools throughout the country prohibit. Orange County Public Schools Superintendent Maria Vazquez said in a statement that she was appalled by the videos and called them “exploitative.”
“I am appalled at the behavior and judgment of the teacher who posted the inappropriate videos using his students as political props. This not free speech — it is the exploitation of our students for political purposes and it will not be tolerated in our school district.
Some parents have defended Hooper and said he’s dedicated to teaching their children and didn’t deserve to be punished for the videos. However, he could be terminated due to the nature of the video’s content.