In more Florida news, a teacher was fired just hours after he asked his students to write their own obituaries. This came ahead of an active shooter drill on campus, the instructor and school district said on Friday.
So what exactly was his reason for this? Well, Psychology teacher Jeffrey Keene told NBC News that he truly believed he used his better judgment when assigning his 11th and 12th graders at Dr. Phillips High School to take on this assignment. Keene said he was told about an upcoming shooter drill so he felt the obituaries would help the students reflect on their lives during the school shooter scenario.
“This isn’t a way to upset you or anything like that,'” he recalled telling his class. “It wasn’t to scare them or make them feel like they were going to die, but just to help them understand what’s important in their lives and how they want to move forward with their lives and how they want to pursue things in their journey.” By 2nd period some students told him they were being interviewed by school officials about his lesson plan. Before the end of the seventh period, he’d been fired. “If you can’t talk real to them, then what’s happening in this environment?” Keene said. “In my mind, I’ve done nothing wrong.”
“If they died 24 hours from now, what would they do differently, than they did yesterday? And that’s to show them what’s important in the world. It wasn’t to say, you’re gonna die and let’s stretch you out,” he told FOX 35 in an interview.
To further prove his point, Keene said one student was upset by the lesson and asked to speak to a counselor. After that, a supervisor came into Keene’s second class.
“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,” he said.
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In a statement, the district spokesman explained: “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.”
Keene, 63, said was hired in January and was not a member of the union, the new site notes. While he’s standing strong on his move, he says he hopes to find a new job soon.
“I don’t think I did anything incorrectly,” Keene said. “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.”
The Latest School Shooting
Fear of school shootings have heightened since the latest incident that took place in Nashville.
As we previously, on March 27, 2023, a mass shooting occurred at The Covenant School, a private Presbyterian Church in America parochial school in the Green Hills neighborhood of Nashville, Tennessee. Shooter Aiden Hale killed three 9-year-olds and three adults at the private Christian elementary before the cops located her in the school and killed her. Nashville parents have since set up a GoFundMe page to help support Hill’s family with funeral expenses.
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