A teacher in Texas staged a photo with one of her 11-year-old students where it shows that she is placing her foot against his neck.
Her identity is disclosed due to privacy issues, but is identified to work at Lamar Elementary in Greenville.
On the day that Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murdering George Floyd, the case brings light to police enforcement pushing his knee into the neck of the victim, whereas the teacher places her foot on the student as a “joke” and did not mean any harm.
She sends the photo to the student’s mother, and the student, Zaelyn Jackson, defends his teacher.
The teacher is friends with the student’s mother and sent the picture over. The both of them found it a laughing matter, but the boy’s father and other relatives did not see it as a joke.
The teacher who is guilty of sending the photo said that she would pursue the act if the boy did not return an assignment. The mother called the school in order to revoke their intent to fire her, but the decision is now in the hands of the superintendent.
Zaelyn’s father comments on the photo, saying that he didn’t like it from “the moment I saw it. I don’t really understand the whole situation, but all I know is it was never supposed to happen.”
The mother explains the relationship she has with her son’s teacher, knowing one another for years and that Zaelyn was not harmed in the process of the staged photo.
She says, “I didn’t think anything of it. It was “ha ha” and I moved on.” She does not believe that the teacher is racist, nor does she deserve to lose her job over a joke that they had staged.
Her son, which is the student, believes that she should not be fired and “she was doing it as a joke. Like, she didn’t put pressure on it or anything. I feel like she was just playing. She didn’t mean harm. People would think she were just trying to copy George Floyd.”
Zaelyn’s aunt gives her insight and says “No matter what race, what person, you don’t put your foot on, nobody else’s child.”
The school district is now investigating the matter and has released a public statement regarding the picture that had been spread around.