Nebraska school officials placed a teacher on administrative leave following her Facebook post comparing anti-maskers to the Ku Klux Klan, further exposing the rift between those parents advocating for personal choice and school administrators who want students to mask up.
The Elkhorn Public School District announced on Tuesday that an unnamed teacher at the school was placed on administrative leave for an unspecified amount of time after the teacher shared a meme on Facebook that joked about KKK members being able to breathe through their hoods but not through face masks, WOWT reported.
“Elkhorn Public Schools was made aware of the referenced social media post on the morning of Tuesday, Aug. 24,” the school told the Washington Examiner. “The teacher was placed on administrative leave in the afternoon of Tuesday, Aug. 24 as we investigate the matter. Notably, the stated views were expressed on the individual’s personal social media account and do not represent those of the Elkhorn Public Schools.”
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Some parents in the school district were offended by the post and condemned the teacher for sharing it. One parent, Ann Mouw, said the teacher’s post made her “sick to [her] stomach.”
“It’s very alarming to know that we have personal views leaking into the district,” Mouw told the outlet. “I believe in any teacher having their own personal beliefs, but when that belief is so strong and comparing our constitutional rights to a hate group, that is not going to be tolerated. It should not be tolerated in any school.”
The teacher said her opinions about U.S. politics are not relevant to her work as an educator.
“My personal views on politics, masking, those are outside of the classroom,” the Elkhorn teacher told the outlet. “I love my job. My opinions are not part of my job. I do my job, I teach math, I teach literature, [and] I teach critical thinking skills. We don’t talk about politics.”
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Elkhorn Public Schools does not require students or teachers to wear masks in school, though it does recommend doing so. Douglas County, where the school is located, asked Nebraska‘s Department of Health and Human Services to implement an indoor mask mandate on Tuesday, but the request was denied, according to the Associated Press.
Nebraska has seen 35,425 cases of COVID-19 among children age 0 to 19, or 4,659.5 cases per 100,000 children, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
