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The Fairbanks North Star Borough School District has not publicly named the teacher, but a 15-minute video of the class posted online, shows a teacher identified as Ms. Gardner. Connie Gardner is a special education teacher at Lathrop. The video shows her leading a conversation about police killing black people, including the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin. Gardner does not defend Chauvin but says Floyd would be alive if he had complied with police orders.
“I’m an old white lady and if the cops came up to me and said mam, put your hands behind your back, you’re going to jail…I’m putin’ my hands behind my back.”
A Lathrop High School teacher was recorded during an online class last week while offering a candid opinion about high profile police shootings, including the murder of George Floyd by a policeman, and telling students that it would be better to comply with law enforcement officers than to run or fight.
The teacher said that police departments need to do a better job of weeding out bad officers. She told students that some perpetrators of violence are non-white. She called people who wear their pants down around their knees thugs.
On YouTube, the video titled âFairbanks Teacher â racist comments and interactions with students, staff, and family memberâ had more than 4,000 views as of Monday.
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But the board’s plan
does not require schools to absolutely follow the CDC’s or the state’s Smart Start guidelines for masking, social distancing and hygiene. It asks schools to meet those guidelines only “to the best of their abilities.”
That has the Fairbanks Education Association president, Sandra Ryan, concerned about the safety of teachers who could be exposed to the disease.
“There is just language that needs to be put into place and remind us of some of the great work we’ve already done with the district on protocols in place, that, unfortunately with the current directive from the school board, we’ll be hard-pressed to maintain them.”
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Credit Fairbanks Education Association
The associations that represent Fairbanks-area teachers, principals and support staff released a statement Friday opposing the opening of schools in January.
The Board of Education for the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District voted a week ago to give students the option to return to
in-person learning for the second semester. The board’s plan
does not require schools to absolutely follow the CDC’s COVID-19 or the state of Alaska’s Smart Start guidelines for masking, social distancing and hygiene the plan only “acknowledges” that schools will meet those guidelines “to the best of their abilities.”