A Texas teacher has reportedly been receiving death threats since Texas state Rep. Briscoe Cain (R) called for the instructor to be fired over what he called an anti-Trump assignment that questioned whether the president should be in office.
A Goose Creek CISD 7th grade teacher, who was not identified, handed out an assignment that included 10 student-written essays that were each paired with a set of critical-thinking questions, the Houston Chronicle reported Wednesday.
{mosads}Cain’s objections center around one essay by a student named Parker titled “Trump Against American Values” from the website Youth Voices.
“This individual has violated the sacred trust that every parent has with the State of Texas when they sent their child into a public school,” Cain wrote on Facebook. “They have lost that privilege of being in a classroom with Texas children, and forfeit the title of teacher.”
“No teacher should attempt to indoctrinate a child to their ideology, no matter who is in the White House,” he added.
Goose Creek Superintendent Randal O’Brien said in a statement to the Chronicle that the teacher “did not use good judgment” and said the matter was settled internally.
The district, however, said that the unnamed teacher has been receiving death threats after Cain posted about the assignment.
“We received many calls at the district following the issue of a media release and social media post that told part of the story and did not reflect the fact that the matter had been resolved within the district,” the district stated. “Many of those calls were deeply disturbing and threatening in nature. While we all agree that the particular passage should not have been used, the teacher made a simple error in judgment. Like all of us, teachers are human and make mistakes from time to time.”
Cain did not address the threats against the teacher, despite receiving a copy of the district’s statement from the Houston Chronicle. He took to Facebook to brag about bringing the “situation to light.”
“Some view this incident as a simple mistake, others see it as a betrayal of parents and students,” Cain wrote. “Sunlight is the best remedy to inappropriate behavior in the classroom.”