Middle School Art Teacher Fired After ‘Deeply Offensive’ Classroom Video Surfaces, Shocking Community

The Hillsborough County school district has fired an art teacher from Barrington Middle School after a video from her class was widely circulated. The video showed the teacher wrapping a cord around the neck of a Black baby doll and hanging it over a classroom television screen.

The video of the incident was shared by a parent of a student who said students were “deeply offended and disturbed by this racist act.” District superintendent Van Ayres called the display “inappropriate and highly offensive.”

District spokesperson Tanya Arja said after the district’s Office of Professional Standards concluded its investigation, the incident was reported to the state Department of Education’s Office of Professional Practice Services “for any action regarding her teaching certificate.”

“We want to reiterate that we do not tolerate conduct of this nature,” she said. “We took immediate action and responded swiftly to ensure the situation was handled appropriately,” Arja said.

Arja said school counselors and administrators are available to meet with students at Barrington who have concerns or want additional support.

Hillsborough County NAACP President Tvette Lewis said she wished she had the opportunity to meet with Savage and turn the incident into a learning moment. Lewis said she appreciated how swiftly the district acted, and said it was important to understand the harm caused by exposing students to actions like that.

“A symbol of hanging an African American person back then was to terrorize or threaten African Americans to just stay in your place and don’t step out of line,” Lewis said. “That’s not how you govern, or that’s not how you teach in a classroom. But if we were able to teach African American history, like it’s supposed to be taught, then maybe this teacher would have realized that what she was thinking was harmful because she acted on it.”

According to reports from CBS affiliate WTSP-TV, the video was taken by a 14-year-old student at Barrington Middle School.

The student’s mother, Nina Williams, posted the video on social media, and it has since racked up over 1 million views on Facebook.

“His art teacher took the time to wrap a charger cord around a Black baby doll’s neck and hang it directly over the classroom television for the entire room to see,” the post reads. “When the children called out this blatant, disgusting act of hate and asked why she hung that doll by its neck, she laughed it off. Her excuse for outing the kids was that she did it ‘to get their attention.’

Williams claimed that the incident simulated a “lynching in the classroom,” with many commenting on the post that the teacher should be fired, while others said that the incident might have been taken out of context.