Utah Teacher Draws Outrage After Post Wondering Whether White Students Will Adapt To Her 'Non-White' Classroom
A school bus.
Aug. 23 2022, Published 12:37 p.m. ET
A teacher in Utah pondered how parents and students in a majority-white school would feel about being in a classroom like hers that she said is "built for non-white students," RadarOnline.com has learned.
“For the first time in my life, I’m going to be teaching at a majority-White school, and I’m kind of interested to see how students and parents react to my classroom, or if they even notice anything about it, because it’s built for non-White students,” a teacher at William Penn Elementary near Salt Lake City, Utah said in a social media post.
The teacher noted that she's working in a majority-white school for the first time and explained that there are "no white kids represented" in her classroom, including the coloring pages she gives to students.
The teacher said that her classroom is "overpowered" by books that she describes as featuring "diverse peoples" despite having some literature from "straight, cis white men" who she believes dominate literature. The classroom's library includes books with characters of color and different gender identities and sexual orientations.
“I feel like some parents might have something to say about that — if my experience with posh, White parents holds true for this year. We’ll see," the teacher ended the social media post with.
William Penn Elementary's principal put out a statement saying it was her “personal commitment … to ensure every student feels safe and welcome,” and it is “inappropriate for any employee to make students feel unwelcome in any way, shape or form.”
The principal said the teacher deleted the social media post, apologized for her comments and the district was looking into whether or not any policies were violated.
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“When schools reopened last year for in-person education, we wondered whether parents would continue to stay engaged in education issues, or whether this movement would fizzle out,” Nicole Neily, president and founder of Parents Defending Education, which reported the incident, told Fox News Digital, according to the New York Post. “We quickly learned that parents were even more worried than before, because they no longer had a window into their children’s educations — and videos like this prove that in many cases, those fears are well-founded.”
