4 Read / Add Comments Calls for a Hudson Valley teacher to either be fired or resign are growing over what many are calling a racist assignment. The controversy began last week in Ulster County when Saugerties High School English teacher Hope Antonelli, gave her ninth-grade English class a writing assignment stating that “George Floyd did not die because (Derek) Chauvin’s knee was on his neck. He died from a heart attack and drug overdose.” Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer, was found guilty of murder and manslaughter on Tuesday, April 20 for killing Floyd by kneeling on his neck for more than nine minutes, as Floyd pleaded that he "could not breathe."