Per reports, the high school teacher, Cary, was fired on Wednesday after he reportedly compared students’ skin colour to coffee roasts. The educator’s termination is effective August 25, 2023. Per reports, the educator was fired after he likened the skin color of some of his students to coffee roasts earlier in the year. The math teacher made the comparison when he put three students’ photos on the board with the descriptions ‘extra cream,’‘medium roast’ and ‘dark roast’ next to them, the PBP reported.
The school board reportedly approved the teacher’s termination last Wednesday after the district’s superintendent recommended the teacher be ousted following February’s incident. The High School Principal Dr. Villani told the school community after the incident that Cary displayed egregiously inappropriate content, CBS 12 reported.
She also said his actions have no place in school settings or anywhere and called it racially charged. The under-fire teacher told CBS 12 last week he made a mistake when he attempted to joke around with his students. When two students were teasing each other about their skin tone, he said he interjected in the back-and-forth, saying ‘if they were going to make fun of each other to be creative.’ The educator admitted it exposed his bias was ‘st-pid of him’ to do. During the district’s probe into Cary, he revealed two of the photos were from students in his class this year and one photo was a student from last year, according to the investigation’s findings reported on by WPTV.
The teacher also admitted telling students that slavery wasn’t that bad, portraying a plantation owner’s perspective. ‘I am not a traditional teacher and this is my second career,’ Cary said, according to school district investigative documents seen by WPTV. ‘I’m doing what I can, I teach them the material, I teach them the standards, I teach them what they have to learn. ‘I also try to get them to think outside of being spoon fed information by their teacher on how to solve the problem.’ The district stated the educator violated policies including ethical misconduct, inappropriate comments/interaction with students and failure to follow established policies, WPTV reported.
