On Friday, a Texas High School English teacher was dismissed for an unmistakably compelling reason.
The students at Franklin High School said that last month the 53-year-old Amber Parker chided students over sexual attraction and a lack of respect.
In the TikTok video, Amber cautioned the students to not judge pedophiles. Amber was able to teach a lesson about labels:
“Stop labeling them as such. It's not acceptable to call people that. Don't do it… It's not our intention to label them as this. … We'll label them MAPs Minor-Attracted People. Don't be a judge simply because they want to engage in sexual relations with a 5-year-old.”
After the video's publication on Facebook and other social platforms, El Paso Independent School District (EPISD) trustee Daniel Call kept an open mind.
KFOX:
In a Facebook post, Daniel wrote that he did not think that [Amber] was encouraging or normalizing the practice, but was instead trying to be a proponent of a position that would confront her students and help prepare them for reading Arthur Miller's Salem witch trial production of The Crucible…
In reaction to Daniel's post Amber's husband expressed gratitude:
“Mr. Daniel Call, I happen to be the spouse of the teacher who is in the inquiry. I can say that we were shocked to the core by these allegations. It's scary and shocking editing an 18 second video could ruin the career of a 30-year veteran if removed from context. She is an excellent teacher who truly values students. It is no surprise that we have had many nights of sleepless nights because of this horrible release on social media over the course of 18 seconds. We hope that you and others in the public will be able to see this for what it really is and stop letting an edited video destroy an innocent woman's career and her family members in the process. I would like to express my gratitude to you personally for your updated post that will start the process of repairing this injustice.”
However, the school board conducted an investigation, and determined that there was something wrong with what had happened.
Daniel later explained the following to El Paso's Channel 14::
“Any reasonable person that heard what the seven trustees heard would've voted to terminate Amber Parker.”
On September 9 the board of directors did just what they had planned to do.
According to EPISD spokesperson Liza Rodriguez, all lesson plans have to be approved by the EPISD. Daniel says Amber has colored way too much outside the boundaries:
“[Amberwas] not the right person to have taken as long as she went. Theoretically I could be using the most effective lesson plan ever. However, if I don't adhere to the lesson plan, and diverge from the areas which I should not be speaking or discussing? The lesson plan is pretty useless.”
“Personal opinions on really sensitive matters don't belong in the classroom,” Daniel insists. “It's up to the parents to offer education about these delicate issues. It's not the responsibility of the school district to provide this.”
This sounds like a good idea; perhaps public education could apply it to their curriculum. In the meantime, Amber's attempts to have a non-judgmental view of the world could represent the only sexual act for which academics might be dismissed. It is possible that you remember last November in which Old Dominion University Professor Allyn Walker resigned over similar remarks. According to The New York Post, Allyn had “argued it wasn't necessarily immoral for adults to be sexually attracted to kids.”
Is Allyn ahead of her time? In the year 2019, RedState Deputy Managing Editor Brandon Morse had something to say regarding the matter:
The mainstream media as well as universities currently trying to promote the concept of pedophilia as a “sexual orientation,” I believe it won't be long before people publicly declare themselves pedophiles, and their communities are portrayed as a part within an LGBT community.
The thing that is not mentioned is that our children are going to be more at risk than they were previously. Pedophilia isn't a sexual orientation, it's a predatory illness. Are we now going to normalize sexual assault and rape?
