Silke Jasso
A Texas teacher is currently under fire after a viral video shows her telling students to call pedophiles “minor-attracted persons.” In a twist and turn of events, the students have come to her defense. Through a unanimous vote from El Paso ISD School Board, Amber Park was terminated. This after the 18-second video was posted online. Park was a former English teacher at Farrington High School.
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“Stop calling them that. You’re not allowed to label people like that. Stop it, Diego,” the teacher can be heard saying in the video. “We are not going to call them that. We’re going to call them MAPs. Minor Attracted Persons. So don’t judge people just because they want to have sex with a 5-year-old.”
A student who was in her English class at the time of the recording told news outlets that her words were actually taken out of context. Apparently, it was part of a discussion exercise that was related to “ “The Crucible,” which the class was reading at the time.
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“She was expressing how ridiculous it was that we might not be able to call people pedophiles. That we will probably have to start calling them MAPs because it can be offensive to them. The class agreed,” Ryann Ruvalcaba, a junior at the high school, told KFOXTV.
Parents have also chimed in expressing their concern over the video, saying that they want a full investigation of the matter. Parent Thomas Deason spoke to KFOX TV, saying, “ You want to see the full video get contacts and everything but… that statement in itself is very concerning.
Laura Edwards also spoke to the news outlet, saying, “It’s not a good 18 seconds but I think that I need context and to know what the whole conversation was before I’d be able to weigh in on to see what’s going on but I do see a lot of students have come to her defense.”
According to the school, the board voted unanimously after an investigation of the incident. They decided to move forward with terminating Parker. She was previously on administrative leave while investigating.
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“This is the beginning of a process, and we’re going to move forward with it, and we await to see the outcome of the process,” Al Velarde, the El Paso ISD board president stated. “The investigation has been completed, but there is a process defined by TEA that we must follow when it comes to the termination of an employee.”
Although the board voted to terminate the teacher from her position, she still has the ability to appeal the unanimous decision.
“The process is just beginning. There are going to be hearings and so forth that become available to the teacher, and so we just await the process,” Velarde continued. According to the news Outlet, a member of a board trustee who had once defended Parker changed his mind after the investigation ended. “She should not have strayed as far as she did,” Daniel Call stated. “Hypothetically, I could have the best lesson plan in the world. But if I don’t follow the lesson plan and I deviate into some areas, I shouldn’t be teaching about or talking about the lesson plan is kind of pointless.”
“Personal opinions on really sensitive matters don’t belong in the classroom,” he continued. “It’s up to the families to provide education on some of these really sensitive issues. It is not the role of the school district to do that.”
