Last week, national and local media outlets alike reported on a YouTube video that caught a McKinney, Texas police officer getting rough with a 14-year-old black girl, after responding to a fight at a pool party. Afterward, an elementary school teacher named Karen Fitzgibbons wrote a post on Facebook about the incident, which led to her dismissal as a teacher, reports the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.
According to the report, Fitzgibbons took to Facebook and wrote a somewhat lengthy post that expressed her disapproval at the officer’s resignation. Fitzgibbons then blamed “the blacks” for the racial tension evident in cities around the U.S., including Ferguson and Baltimore, to name a few. She also referenced segregation.
“I guess that’s what happens when you flunk out of school and have no education. I’m sure their parents are just as guilty for not knowing what their kids were doing; or knew it and didn’t care,” wrote Fitzgibbons. “I’m almost to the point of wanting them all segregated on one side of town so they can hurt each other and leave the innocent people alone. Maybe the 50s and 60s were really on to something. Now, let the bashing of my true and honest opinion begin…GO! #imnotracist #imsickofthemcausingtrouble #itwasatagedcommunity.”
Fitzgibbons deleted the post but it had already caught the attention of the Frenship Independent School District’s director of public relations and information, Andy Penney. “Matters such as this are taken very seriously regarding our employees’ social media use,” said Penney. “That’s the whole reason we have policies and procedures in place.”
In a statement released on Thursday, the district confirmed that Fitzgibbons was fired from her job as fourth-grade elementary teacher at Bennett Elementary School. For her part, Fitzgibbons told the outlet that she apologized “to the appropriate people.”
This is the second time this week an educator was in hot water due to comments they made about the McKinney incident. North Miami Senior High School principal Alberto Iber believed the officer in the video did nothing wrong and expressed that belief on Facebook. Iber was fired from his position.