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By Thomas Kika
Weekend Staff Writer
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A Texas elementary school on Tuesday announced the firing of a teacher for social media comments about white people that it deemed "racist."
The issue arose in the Mesquite Independent School District in Mesquite, Texas, a suburban city situated east of Dallas. On Tuesday, the district shared a statement to X, formerly Twitter, announcing that a teacher, whom the statement did not name, had been let go from Thompson Elementary School following the discovery of "alarming, racist statements" she made on the platform.
"At approximately 4 p.m. [local time] yesterday, Mesquite ISD became aware of a series of alarming, racist statements posted to the X (formerly Twitter) account of a teacher at Thompson Elementary," the post explained. "Upon learning of this situation, our Personnel staff began an immediate investigation."
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The post continued: "As of this morning, the employee is no longer a part of the Mesquite ISD organization and is not eligible for rehire. Due to privacy restrictions, Mesquite ISD cannot comment on the details of Personnel matters. Nevertheless, the highly offensive statements posted to her X account do not reflect the values and standards of Mesquite ISD, and the district condemns them in the strongest terms."
Newsweek was unable to make contact with the former teacher.
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The account of the teacher at the heart of the situation has since been deleted, but select posts were collected by outlets like Sportskeeda and published. The name used for the account was "Claire Kyle," but this was not the individual's real name.
In the account's bio, the former teacher referred to herself as "pro-Black men," as well as a "Black supremacist." The account was created in September 2022, with Sportskeeda reporting that it had consistently made posts derogatory towards white people since then. Only recently had her account been linked to her real job at Thompson Elementary, causing an uproar from some users online.
Among the posts that generated the most pushback was one from Sunday in which the former teacher expressed shock about her sister dating a white person.
"Like I'm baffled af seeing a white man in my house," she posted. "I can't believe it!! This is supposed to be a NEGRO ONLY house. I'm so mad right now!! But I also don't want to cause a scene and embarrass her!! Idk what to do right now!!"
The following day, she took to the account again to note that users had "found her job," prompting the school district to ask that she delete a post that was brought to their attention. She further claimed that she was told that she would be okay since she "did not directly wish harm on ALL white people" and was told to "watch what I say."
In response to an inquiry from Newsweek, a representative of Mesquite ISD could not confirm or deny that the former teacher might have been told that at some point. They did, however, state that "no one at Central Office condoned her sentiments nor gave her those instructions. We acted as swiftly as possible to address this issue appropriately.
Updated 08/09/2023, 3:45 p.m. ET: This article was updated to include a response from Mesquite ISD.
Correction 08/09/2023, 4:54 p.m. ET: This article was updated to reflect the teacher resigned and was not fired.
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